Charlie Kirk, founder of the conservative campus activist organization Turning Point USA and an outspoken evangelical Christian, was shot in an apparent assassination during an event at Utah Valley University Sept. 10.
The 31-year-old was fatally shot in the neck while taking questions from audience members during a stop at the university as part of his American Comeback Tour. He is survived by his wife, Erika Frantzve, and his 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son.
The shooting occurred when Kirk was answering a student’s question about transgenderism and gun violence at about 12:10 p.m. M.D.T., shortly after the event began. The university was Kirk’s first tour stop.
Kirk, who often debated students on campus, strongly defended free speech at colleges and was an outspoken critic of discrimination against Christians and gender ideology. He founded Turning Point USA in 2012 when he was just 18 years old to promote free speech and conservative values on college campuses.
Vice President JD Vance posted on X that Kirk’s campus events “are one of the few places with open and honest dialogue between left and right,” noting that Kirk “would answer any question and talk to everyone.”
“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord,” Vance said in a follow-up post.
Kirk was a close ally of President Donald Trump, who expressed sadness about his death in a Truth Social post and referred to Kirk as “great, and even legendary.”
“No one understood or had the heart of the youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” he wrote. “He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us. Melania and my sympathies go out to his beautiful wife Erika and family. Charlie, we love you!”
In a statement, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge lauded Kirk’s “commitment to civil and rational discourse” and said the killing was part of a “vicious pattern of political and social disorder,” including the murders of Annunciation Catholic School students Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel in Minneapolis and Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte, N.C. “We entrust each of these victims to God, our Heavenly Father and author of every human life, and his son, Jesus Christ, the reason for our supernatural hope.”
“We are living through a perilous moment,” he said. “Our challenge is not only one of partisan disagreement, law, and policy, but in a deeper way our challenge is to uphold the central goods of American political life: of faith, of families, and of a national commitment to live together in harmony as brothers and sisters.”
Kirk has been outspoken about his Christian faith on social media, in interviews and on his previous campus tours.
In a post on X last week, Kirk expressed optimism about a “revival in the Christian church.”
“Churches are growing,” Kirk said. “Young people are flocking to faith in God. You do not want to live in a non-Christian country. Even the most hardened atheists or agnostics are blessed by the church’s influence.”
As of early Sept. 11, the shooter had not been captured. The motive is not yet known.
Trump ordered flags be flown at half-staff until 6 p.m. Sept. 14 to honor Kirk’s legacy. The president said Kirk was “a truly Great American Patriot.”
The Catholic Herald contributed to this story.
