Erika Kirk has shared the heart-wrenching final moments before her husband, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, was assassinated earlier this month. In an emotional interview with The New York Times, she revealed the last message she sent Charlie the morning he left for Provo, Utah, to begin his campus tour.
“He got up, and I could hear him eating something in the kitchen. He’d been waiting all summer to begin touring,” Erika recalled. Because he left so early, she didn’t get to kiss him goodbye—so she sent a simple text: “I love you.” Hours later, Charlie, 31, was fatally shot in the neck while speaking at Utah Valley University.
Mid-flight to Utah, Erika learned of his death. “I’m looking at the clouds and the mountains,” she said. “It was such a gorgeous day, and I was thinking: This is exactly what he last saw.” At the hospital, a sheriff warned her not to view Charlie’s body due to the damage caused by the bullet. Erika insisted, wanting to see him one last time. She described his appearance as haunting yet peaceful: “His eyes were semi-open.
And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smile. Like he’d die happy. Like Jesus rescued him.” Since the tragedy, Erika has leaned on her Christian faith. Asked whether she wants the shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, to face the death penalty, she said, “I do not want this man’s blood on my ledger… that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie.” Her final words to him, “I love you,” now serve as both a goodbye and a promise to carry Charlie’s memory forward, honoring his legacy through her grief and faith.
