Charlie Kirk's widow pardons husband's killer

Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk, said Sunday she forgives the conservative activist’s killer at the event to honor him at a stadium packed with tens of thousands of people in Arizona.

Kirk said her husband’s mission was to “save young men, just like the one who took his life.”

Charlie Kirk’s widow forgives his killer at his funeral

Erika Kirk: “My husband Charlie he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life…On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ That young man. I forgive him.” pic.twitter.com/jy8W7YrmVs

– CSPAN (@cspan) September 21, 2025

Last September 10, Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck during an event at a Utah university and the following day a 22-year-old man named Tyler Robinson, who authorities said had become “radicalized” with liberal ideas in the past year, was arrested as the alleged perpetrator.

The Utah state prosecutor who has formally charged Robinson with aggravated murder has called for the death penalty for him, a punishment similarly called for by U.S. President Donald Trump, who also delivered a speech at Kirk’s memorial today.

“I forgive him because that’s what Christ did. The answer to hate is not to hate,” said Erika Kirk, who received resounding applause from the nearly 73,000 people who packed Arizona’s State Farm Stadium.

Now that Erika Kirk has been named the new director of Turning Point, the organization her husband founded 13 years ago, the woman said the activist’s mission is also her own and she will do her best to continue to expand it.

The woman also said that doctors assured her that Kirk suffered no pain from the gunshot and that his death was instantaneous.

At the age of 18, Kirk founded Turning Point, an organization through which he organized debates and events at universities and which made him a recognized spokesman for ultra-conservative Christian conservatism in the United States.

Also speaking at the event on Sunday, September 21, were Vice President JD Vance, a personal friend of Kirk’s, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.