Erika Kirk has spoken publicly about the moment she saw her husband, Charlie Kirk's body, in the hospital and the words a surgeon shared with her after his assassination.
Kirk was shot in the neck on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University during a stop on his Turning Point USA comeback tour.
According to videos from the scene, the shooting occurred shortly after the 31-year-old made comments about gun violence in response to a question about mass shootings.
An audience member asked: "Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?" to which he replied: "Too many."
The person then said there had been five in 10 years and asked the Trump ally how many mass shooters there had been in that time. "Counting or not counting gang violence?" was Kirk's reply.
Then a single shot rang out, and the conservative activist collapsed in his chair with blood pouring from the wound.
On Sunday (September 21), a memorial for the late Turning Point USA founder was held at State Farm Stadium in Arizona.
Speaking at the event, Kirk's widow shared an emotional account of her final moments with her husband’s body in Utah and the comfort she received from a doctor who tried to save him.
"I saw the wound that ended his life. I felt everything he would expect to feel," Erika said, as reported by The Guardian. "I felt shock. I felt horror, and a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed. But there was something else, too. Even in death, I could see the man that I love."
She added: "But there was something else too. Even in death, I could see the man that I love… I also saw on his lips the faintest smile."
She revealed that the surgeon told her the shot was so devastating that even if it had happened inside the operating room, it wouldn’t have been survivable.
"There was no pain, there was no fear, no agony," she said. "One moment, Charlie was doing what he loved... then he blinked. He blinked and saw his savior in paradise.”
A spokesperson for TPUSA, Andrew Kolvet, echoed that account, sharing further details about the nature of Kirk’s injury in a statement posted to X: "I just spoke with the surgeon who worked on Charlie in the hospital."
"He said the bullet 'absolutely should have gone through, which is very very normal for a high powered, high velocity round. I’ve seen wounds from this caliber many times and they always just go through everything. This would have taken a moose or two down, an elk, etc.'"
"But it didn’t go through. Charlie’s body stopped it," he added.
The service drew massive crowds and featured appearances from high-profile political figures.
President Donald Trump spoke at the event and posthumously awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
“Today, an entire nation wraps its loving arms around you and your beautiful children,” Trump said, addressing Erika. “We vow that we will do everything we can to ensure that your children grow up in a land where their father is honored and revered as a great American hero," per The Independent.
Of the late right-wing influencer, he said: “What was even more important to Charlie than politics and service was the choice he made in the fifth grade - which he called the 'most important decision of his life' - to become a Christian and a follower of his savior, Jesus Christ.”
Erika has now taken on leadership of the organization her husband founded, telling the crowd: “I love you Charlie, baby. And I will make you proud.”
Tyler Robinson, 22, has since been arrested and charged with seven counts in connection with the shooting.