‘No idea what you’ve unleashed’: Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, gives statement after husband’s shooting – follow live | Charlie Kirk shooting

When Hunter Kozak, a mathematics student at Utah Valley University, approached the mic to challenge Charlie Kirk on Wednesday, minutes before the fatal shooting of the conservative activist, the words “Prove me wrong” were emblazoned on the tent above the Turning Point USA founder.

Kozak was sure that he could do just that, having done quite a lot of research to debunk Kirk’s recent claim that transgender Americans were responsible for a disproportionate amount of mass shootings.

As Kozak had explained in a recent video on his TikTok channel, his statistical analysis shows that the opposite is true, and he was in the middle of explaining to Kirk that just five of the 6,000 mass shootings in the past decade have been carried out by transgender people when the gunman opened fire.

After the shooting, Kozak said in an emotional TikTok video that he was overwhelmed with grief and denounced people who might have welcomed the killing of the far-right activist.

“First off, you sick, fucking psychos that think this is the answer: it’s not. I don’t know what else to say. It’s fucking not. It’s awful,” Kozak said. “It’s a tragedy.”

“People have obviously pointed to the irony that, the point that I was trying to make is how peaceful the left was, right before he got shot, and that only makes sense if we stay peaceful,” he added.

“I stand by so little of everything that he said, but one of the things that he stood by was, conversation,” Kozak said. “And if you’re salivating about what happened: don’t. I don’t know if any of my audience is, but if you are, you’re not part of what I’m trying to build here, at all.”

Kozak’s response was significantly more empathetic than that of a conservative TikToker, who goes by the handle ElderTikTok. That fan of Kirk, who was in line to ask a question, recorded a live report from the scene of the shooting, as people fled around him, in which he conveyed the news while simultaneously urging viewers to follow him on the platform. He later deleted that video, and issued an apology in which he pledged to be “a better content creator”.

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah resident, suspected fatally shooting killed far-right activist Charlie Kirk, is expected to be formally charged with murder next week in a Utah state court.

The fact that charges will be brought by the state, and not the federal government, also means the trial is likely to be televised, a legal expert tells Politico.

“Utah has one of the best cameras-in-the-courtroom rules in the country,” Jeff Hunt, a media lawyer, said. “There’s a presumption of electronic media coverage in our trial courts.”

Since Kirk, for all his importance to the current presidential administration, was not a federal official and was not killed on federal property, there appears to be no reason for federal charges to be filed.

Had Kirk’s suspected killer targeted him for his faith or race, federal prosecutors might have had an opening to charge the murder as a hate crime under federal law, but the suspect, like Kirk, is a white man from a Christian family.

In what Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA described as his widow Erika Kirk’s “address to the nation”, the late conservative activist’s wife pledged to carry out his mission, urged young people to join his organization and called for a revival of Christian faith.

She told “the evil-doers responsible for my husband’s assassination”, that “if you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before, you have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world”.

“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” she said. “The movement my husband built will not die.”

Kirk’s scheduled campus tour, and a conference scheduled for December, AmericaFest, “will go on” she said, as will his radio and podcast show.

“His wisdom will endure,” she said.

Kirk also urged young people to join Turning Point USA chapters around the country.

“If there isn’t a chapter, if you can’t find one, then start one,” she said.

She reiterated what she said was his constant refrain: “If you want to get involved, go to TPUSA.com”

Her address was also a plea for young Americans to embrace the Christian faith and join what she called “a Bible-believing church”.

“Now and for all eternity he will stand at his savior’s side,” she said of her husband, “wearing the glorious crown of a martyr”.

She also quoted what she called one of his favorite Bible verses: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.”

The struggle her husband was committed to, and she intends to continue, she said, was not just political, but “above all it is spiritual”.

“Spiritual warfare is palpable,” she said.

“I know my husband is still here,” she said “he’s watching over us.”

Erika Kirk, the widow of the conservative activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Wednesday, just began her address from a podium next to his desk on the set of his show.

Clearly struggling with emotion, and whispering at times, she began by thanking law enforcement and emergency services for their efforts to save her husband.

She went on to thank the other leaders at Turning Point USA, the political youth organization her husband created.

She then praised JD Vance, the vice-president, and his wife, Usha, for bringing his body back to Arizona from Utah on Air Force Two.

Addressing Donald Trump, she said: “Mr President, my husband loved you and he knew that you loved him too. Your friendship was amazing.”

Erika Kirk went on to stress her husband’s Christian faith, noted his faith-driven belief in marriage and said that her husband told her “if he ever ran for office” he intended to make it his top priority “to revive the American family”.

Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, is expected to make a statement shortly, at 8.15pm ET.

The remarks, her first public statement since the killing of her husband, will be streamed live on Turning Point USA’s YouTube channel, and we will bring them to you here.

The Secret Service, the agency that provides security to the president, the vice-president and visiting foreign officials, has reportedly suspended an agent who posted a critical comment about the conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Facebook.

According to a screenshot posted online by a conservative reporter for Real Clear Politics, after Kirk was killed, the agent, Anthony Pough, shared video of Kirk’s infamous comment, in 2023, that a Black congresswoman did not have “the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously” and “had to go steal a white person’s slot to go be taken somewhat seriously”.

Above the video, the agent wrote to his Facebook friends that anyone “mourning this guy” should unfollow him on the social network. “He spewed hate and racism on his show.”

“At the end of the day, you answer to GOD and speak things into existence,” he added. “You can only circumvent karma, she doesn’t leave.”

In response to the Real Clear Politics report, Marsha Blackburn, a Republican senator from Tennessee, wrote the director of the Secret Service demanding that the agent be fired for what she called his celebration and attempt to justify Kirk’s assassination.

“This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun,” the Secret Service said in a statement to CNN and other news outlets on Friday.

Susan Crabtree, the reporter who first discovered the agent’s post also shared screenshots of other posts, including one in which the agent called Pete Hegseth’s decision to fire the Black air force general CQ Brown Jr as chair of the joint chiefs of staff “racism.” Three months before Hegseth took office, he had told a podcaster the next defense secretary had to “fire the chairman of the joint chiefs” because any general “that was involved in any of that DEI woke shit has got to go.”

Another post from Pough shared by Crabtree mocked Donald Trump for refusing to rule out a recession in 2025.

Editor’s note: This article was updated on 12 September 2025 to remove quotes after the verified source who attended high school with Tyler Robinson said after publication that they could not accurately remember details of their relationship.

Jeff Gray, the Utah county attorney, plans to file formal charges against Tyler Robinson on Tuesday, his office said.

Gray’s office “is carefully reviewing all the evidence in this case to determine the appropriate charges to file”, his chief of staff said.

Gray plans to describe the charges at a news conference at noon local time on Tuesday.

If charges are filed on Tuesday, Robinson’s first appearance would be a virtual hearing at 3pm mountain time that day.

Pete Hegseth, the former Fox weekend anchor serving as Donald Trump’s defense secretary, has ordered Pentagon officials to scour social media for comments by service members that make light of Charlie Kirk’s death and punish anyone expressing dissident views, NBC News reports.

Several service members have been relieved of their jobs already, Pentagon officials told the broadcaster.

The purge comes after Hegseth, his spokesperson and the secretaries of the army, navy and air force all warned service members to express only the correct political opinions about Kirk and his killing.

The officials warned service members, and civilian employees of the Pentagon that “inappropriate comments” including “posts displaying contempt toward” Kirk, or comments that “celebrate or mock the assassination” would be “dealt with swiftly and decisively”.

The effort to root out dissidents in the ranks comes as online activists promised to get Kirk’s critics fired in a range of fields, including the military and academia.

in Washington, Utah

Roy Corey, retired and in his 70s, was watering his marigolds on Friday morning in a neighborhood not far from the family home of Tyler Robinson, who was arrested in connection with the killing of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and influencer.

Corey moved to Utah and feels at home there because his wife and him are “patriots and Christians”. He has no relation to the Robinsons, but has been fielding visits all day – from local law enforcement, reporters and two people who said they were with a collections agency – because he lives in a house formerly owned by a Robinson relative.

Corey seemed amused by the coincidence, but saddened by Kirk’s death. He sees it as part of a broader pattern.

“Regardless of if Charlie got shot or not, it’s increasing,” Corey said.

in Washington, Utah

Miles Meloni, 14, lives in the same neighborhood as the Robinsons. Meloni followed Kirk, and feels “great sorrow” for the Robinson and Kirk families.

Meloni is alarmed by political violence in the country he is coming of age in.

“I want to see a change,” Meloni said. “I think for people like this, if the family sees any progression towards this view, that they need to hurt people, that they need to have their child, family member, friends, anybody, seek help.”

He hopes this doesn’t skew people’s perception of the state he calls home.

“It’s just not something you think would happen here,” Meloni said. “Don’t let this taint your view on Utah.”