(OSV News) — President Donald Trump said conservative activist Charlie Kirk died after being shot Sept. 10 during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Public officials and other commentators called for prayer after he was shot in the neck, reportedly by a sniper. Kirk was 31 and a married father with two young children.
In a statement, President Donald Trump said, “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead.”
“No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump said. “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!”
Kirk’s ‘American Comeback Tour’
A staunch ally of Trump, Kirk, was the founder of the Republican-aligned Turning Point USA. He was being hosted by that organization’s chapter at the university for his “American Comeback Tour.”
According to multiple reports, Kirk was in the midst of discussing mass shootings in the U.S. with an individual attendee when a single shot rang out, striking Kirk and scattering the crowd.
Vice President JD Vance and Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., both Catholics, were among the first officials across the aisle who offered their reactions on social media, calling for prayer and condemning political violence, respectively.
“Dear God, protect Charlie in his darkest hour,” Vance wrote prior to confirmation of Kirk’s death by the president.
‘Disgusting, vile, reprehensible’
Newsom called the shooting “disgusting, vile, and reprehensible.”
“In the United States of America, we must reject political violence in EVERY form,” Newsom wrote.
Newsom and Kirk previously joined each other’s podcasts to debate their political differences.
Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who survived after she was shot and gravely injured in 2011, wrote on X, “I’m horrified to hear that Charlie Kirk was shot at an event in Utah.”
“Democratic societies will always have political disagreements, but we must never allow America to become a country that confronts those disagreements with violence,” she said.
Stopped to pray for Kirk upon hearing the news
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America and Students for Life Action and a Catholic, said in a statement she was speaking at her own campus tour at the University of Montana at the time of the incident and stopped it to pray in response to hearing the news.
“As I also stood on a college campus, I was horrified to learn that my friend Charlie Kirk had been shot,” Hawkins said. “Our nation is in crisis when speaking up for preborn children and for love of country leads to violence, and that’s clearly on the rise.”
Bishop Robert E. Barron of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, was also among those who called for prayer.
The U.S. House of Representatives observed a moment of silence in response.
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
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