Erika Kirk is opening up about the tragic shooting death of her husband Charlie Kirk.
The 36-year-old widow of the conservative commentator and Turning Point USA founder shared about the moments she learned her husband was shot at an event in Utah, and detailed when she found out he passed from the injuries.
Keep reading to find out more…
Erika recalled staying in the Phoenix, Ariz., area that day, as her mom was set to undergo medical treatment.
Per an interview with The New York Times, the widow was in her mother’s hospital room at 11:23am when she got a call from Charlie‘s assistant Michael McCoy who screamed at her, “He’s been shot!”
Charlie‘s chartered plane returned to Scottsdale to bring Erika to Utah to be by her husband’s side, and she learned that he died while still in the air on her way to Provo.
“I’m looking at the clouds and the mountains,” she shared. “It was such a gorgeous day, and I was thinking: This is exactly what he last saw.”
After she arrived at the hospital, the sheriff met her and offered her to see her husband, but advised against as the bullet “ravaged” his neck.
“With all due respect,” Erika told the sheriff. “I want to see what they did to my husband.”
While she prepared for the worst, what she saw surprised her.
“His eyes were semi-open,” she recalled. “And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven.”
Erika also shared that she still can’t bring herself to go into their bedroom and has been rotating where she sleeps.
The widow, who has since been named the new CEO of Turning Point USA, is pictured here attending her late husband’s memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday (September 21). She got emotional while on stage before giving remarks and remembering her husband, and she also joined President Donald Trump, even leaning her head on his shoulder.
At the memorial, Erika noted that she forgives the suspected shooter, Tyler Robinson.
“That young man, that young man,” she shared through tears, via The Wrap. “On the cross, our savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.’”
“That man, that young man,” she repeated. “I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do.”
“The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us,” Erika added.