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SALT LAKE CITY — Taylor Bentley, a Utah resident who said he was 15 to 20 yards from Charlie Kirk when he was assassinated, told Fox News Digital there was a moment he didn’t believe it was real.
“He was talking about gun violence and the initial thought, for just a millisecond, was like, ‘Is this a bit that he’s doing, where he leans back? And then, immediately, it’s like, no.”
Bentley said he was close enough to Kirk to see the blood pouring down his neck. While briefly in disbelief, he then quickly jumped into action.
“After just a second of shock, I pulled my friends down,” Bentley said. “And we’re on the ground for about 15 seconds, just kind of feeling helpless before people start running to the buildings surrounding the courtyard. And we took off and sheltered in there for about 20 minutes.”
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During those 20 minutes sheltering, Bentley said he was worried, but he didn’t feel unsafe.
“We felt pretty sure that this was a targeted assassination. We knew immediately that Charlie wasn’t gonna make it. We were close enough to see what the shot was like and knew that he was probably not going be able to make it out,” Bentley said.
In the two days since Kirk’s assassination, he told Fox News Digital, he’s loved the message from community leaders, including Gov. Spencer Cox, R-Utah, who has consistently addressed the public at news conferences since Wednesday.
Cox called Kirk’s assassination a “watershed in American history” after announcing the suspect’s arrest.
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The governor said Kirk’s “political assassination” is an “attack on the American experiment.”
“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us. We get to make decisions. We have our agency. And I desperately call on every American — Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me,” Cox said Friday.
Bentley said Cox has “done a phenomenal job in pushing a message of unity, of faith, of hope and of embracing the message that Charlie pushed out there of open dialogue, and of avoiding violence, and of approaching our disagreements with words instead of violence.”
Since the assassination on Wednesday, Utah has organized several vigils. In Orem City Park on Thursday evening, several students and local residents paid their respects during a candlelit vigil.
A memorial honoring Kirk at the Timpanogos Regional Hospital is flooded with “We love you, Charlie” posters, flowers and American flags. More signs and flowers were placed for Kirk on Utah Valley University’s campus.
Flags are flying throughout the state at half-staff this week, and many gathered for a vigil at the Utah State Capitol on Wednesday evening.
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