Charlie Kirk arrived in Utah on Wednesday primed to banter with students at Utah Valley University as part of the “Prove Me Wrong” crusade he had taken to dozens of colleges around the country.
The 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, widely seen as the largest and most influential conservative youth organization in the United States, would leave Utah in a way no one could have anticipated only a day before — aboard Air Force Two with Vice President JD Vance escorting his body in a casket back to his home in Phoenix.
In what President Donald Trump described as a “dark moment for America,” a lone gunman fatally shot Kirk as he took questions under a pop-up tent in an amphitheater in the center of the UVU campus in Orem surrounded by a largely Gen Z crowd — though moms, dads and kids were there, too — estimated at 3,000 strong.
But there were glimmers of light in the darkness, humanity amid tragedy as events unfolded. As the manhunt ensued, 11,000 tips would come to law enforcement as the media, the public and law enforcement worked to get the message out; it led to the suspect’s capture.
And by Friday night, Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, would offer her first public comments, thanking all for what they had done, expressing her love for her husband and his profound love for her.
“He was the perfect father. He was the perfect husband,” Erika said, as she vowed to carry on the work he had done for conservative values and the beauty of a life devoted to faith and family.
Moments of light
Heroes emerged in the tumultuous minutes after Kirk went down.
Witnesses described some people hugging strangers and helping them up, others providing rides away from campus and even shelter. A group of men formed a circle around a woman and her very young children to keep them from being knocked down as terrified attendees scrambled to get away from what they feared would be a mass shooting. A women’s volleyball team manager sprinted across campus to safeguard the players.
People of all political persuasions, beliefs and religions gathered at a vigil in Utah and elsewhere in both red and blue states. They prayed. They sang. They held hands.
Utah Bridge Builders brought young Republicans and young Democrats together, vowing to find new ways to address the “national moment.”
The New York Yankees held a moment of silence for Kirk. So did the NFL before the Green Bay Packers-Washington Commanders game in Green Bay on Thursday.
“The NFL condemns all violence in our communities. It will take all of us to stop hate,” the public address announcer declared. The league said teams are free to do the same at Sunday’s games.
A “watershed moment” is how Utah Gov. Spencer Cox described this time in not only Utah but American history.
“The question is, what kind of watershed? And that chapter remains to be written. Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history or the beginning of a darker chapter in our history?” he asked.
In a Friday interview with Brigham Tomco of the Deseret News, the governor said: “All eyes are on Utah. This is also an opportunity to show the country a way through this, and that way is through kindness and service to our neighbors and building our communities.”
News of Kirk’s death quickly spread across the nation, even the world, dominating the news as people grappled with the irony and the tragedy of an advocate for free speech being fatally shot while engaged in exercising that very right — agree or disagree with his conservative, sometimes polarizing, views.
The horrific scene of Kirk profusely bleeding from the neck traumatized those who witnessed it firsthand. Some children who were there slept in their parents’ room that night. Millions of others watched video of the shooting on their phones and laptops.
News organizations showed the scene and the shooting in video, with ethical standards eliminating the gruesome moment of impact. But no such restraint was in play for many videos on social media, making access easy for those who later, perhaps, wished they had not seen it.
Reactions from all over
Condolences to Kirk’s family streamed in from places large and small, Democrats and Republicans, friends and foes.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called it “heartbreaking” that a young family has been robbed of a father and a husband. Kirk and his wife Erika are the parents of two young children.
“We must all be free to debate openly and freely without fear — there can be no justification for political violence," Starmer said.
The on-air commentary over the rest of Wednesday and all day Thursday — the 24th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history — reflected the good, the bad and the ugly. Republicans and Democrats condemned the killing, all saying political violence has no place in America.
One commentator on MSNBC, Matthew Dowd, accused Kirk of hate speech, saying “you can’t say these awful words and not expect awful actions to take place.” The network fired him. He was one of many at companies or elsewhere facing punishment for reactions deemed heartless, particularly those who expressed joy in the violence.
Anyone who celebrated Kirk’s death should “look in the mirror,” Cox said.
The sentiment now days later? Maybe we should all look in the mirror to consider how our thoughts, words and actions might be adding to the current political climate.
On Friday, after a two-day manhunt involving federal, state and local law enforcement, Cox announced the arrest of Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Washington County, Utah, man in connection with what Cox had earlier called the “political assassination” of Kirk. Anti-fascist messages were inscribed on the ammunition in the rifle used to kill Kirk.
FBI Director Kash Patel not only praised law enforcement — “This is what happens when you let good cops be cops” — but credited the public and the media for the arrest coming just 33 hours after the shooting.
The photos and video that authorities released to the public that the media broadcasted and published helped generate 11,000 leads.
Reporters from all the major networks and international outlets like the BBC descended on Utah to cover a story that put the state into the national spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Some Utahns, including Cox, had hoped and prayed the shooter had traveled to the state from somewhere else, that he wasn’t home grown. That wasn’t the case.
“Sadly, that prayer was not answered the way I had hoped for. Just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could just say, ‘Hey, we don’t do that here.’ And indeed, Utah is a special place. We lead the nation in charitable giving. We lead the nation in service every year. But it did happen here,” the governor said.
In the end, Robinson’s family urged him to turn himself in and alerted police, a difficult task but perhaps heroic in its own way. Police believe he acted alone in the assassination.
Robinson had become more political in the past few years, according to investigators. At a recent family dinner, he mentioned Kirk’s scheduled appearance at UVU and expressed why he didn’t like him or his opinions.
How did that lead to murder? There are still things we don’t know about the shooter. But that isn’t supposed to happen in this country when we disagree on abortion or immigration or health care. But it does. And, sadly, likely will again.
“Somehow we need to be able to gather to police ourselves to engage in dialogue without killing somebody,” said former Salt Lake City police chief Chris Burbank. “I might be saying this until I’m in the grave but I’m going to keep trying.”
As the father of a UVU volleyball player who sheltered in her team’s locker room in the chaos of the shooting posted on Facebook: “If you have hate in your heart for someone who believes different, you are the problem. It’s just political views. ‘Love thy neighbor as thyself.’ It is OK to believe different and love each other.”
Do Americans really believe that? If so, it’s certainly being tested to the limit.
Cox’s heartfelt words in an emotional speech at Friday’s press conference came as a sharp contrast to the rhetoric Trump offered since Kirk was killed, blaming “the radical left” for his death. “The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious, and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy,” the president said Friday.
The Utah governor called for a de-escalation. He talked about forgiveness, not getting even, and commented on the difference between his comments and the president’s in his interview with the Deseret News.
Cox said he understood, calling Trump’s response “very normal” and “how most people are feeling.” The 22-year-old suspect did, in fact, appear to have been motivated by “a radical left ideology” that had “engulfed” him, Cox said.
But the president has also indicated his desire to de-escalate the nation’s political violence, Cox said. Cox pointed out that Trump was the first person to call him after his Friday press conference to thank him for his words and to reemphasize Kirk’s message of nonviolence.
Can Utah lead out?
History, Cox said, will dictate if this is a turning point for the country, “but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.”
Cox particularly appealed to the nation’s young people to find a better way forward. He called for moral clarity. Words, he said, are not violence.
“You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option. But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path,” Cox said. “Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now.”
The day before the shooting, President Russell M. Nelson, the leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints turned 101. He has repeatedly called for all to be peacemakers. The First Presidency again condemned violence on Friday.
Noteworthy was President Nelson’s “birthday wish,” expressed in an op-ed in Time magazine as he pondered on what he has learned. Among the teachings is this:
“Each of us has inherent worth and dignity. I believe we are all children of a loving Heavenly Father. But no matter your religion or spirituality, recognizing the underlying truth beneath this belief that we all deserve dignity is liberating — it brings emotional, mental, and spiritual equilibrium — and the more you embrace it, the more your anxiety and fear about the future will decrease.”
