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In the days following Charlie Kirk’s assassination, Utahns have united at memorials and candlelit vigils to honor the 31-year-old conservative influencer’s life and legacy.
“It’s really important we support each other,” Republican Utah state Senate President Stuart Adams told Fox News Digital. “I’m very proud of our community for coming together to try to support one another as we work our way through this.”
As local leaders urge the community to lean on their friends, family and neighbors, many have echoed Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox’s call to action against political violence.
“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,” Cox said during a press conference on Friday after announcing the suspect, Tyler Robinson, had been arrested.
UTAH STUDENTS LIFT VOICES IN PRAYER AT VIGIL FOR CHARLIE KIRK’S CHRISTIAN LEGACY: ‘FELT CALLED BY GOD’
Adams said it’s vital that Americans put their phones down, as Kirk encouraged, to contribute something constructive to the community.
EYEWITNESS DESCRIBES MOMENT CHARLIE KIRK WAS ASSASSINATED: ‘WE KNEW IMMEDIATELY’
“This is a turning point for America as we see what we want to become, what we want to do, what we want America to be, and surely we don’t want America to be filled with hate. We want to fill it with love, with the type of discourse and free speech that Charlie represented,” Adams said.
Utah Attorney General Derek Brown told Fox News Digital that Utahns can honor Kirk’s life by modeling his commitment to open dialogue.
“He engaged in a productive, respectful dialogue, and he showed a model for how to engage productively with people that you might disagree with,” Brown said, adding that “he was modeling the very behavior that he encouraged people to do” until the moment he died.
As attorney general, Brown has collaborated with local and federal law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure Kirk’s assassin “pays the price for what he’s done.”
“If that’s state law, if that’s federal law, if that is a combination of both, we’ll make sure justice is served in this case,” Brown said.
While Brown carries out his job, he said it’s the community’s job to “learn how to cope with what’s happened, to learn how to heal.”
“I have people close to me in my own family and on my own staff even, who were part of the experience. They were there, they saw it happen. I think it’s important for us to process the trauma and the experience and to understand what it is and, ideally, to use it to bring us together,” he said.
Taylor Bentley, a Utah resident who said he was 15 to 20 yards from Kirk when he was assassinated, told Fox News Digital that he has loved the message of unity from community leaders, particularly the governor.
And Brown agreed that Cox’s unifying message has “showcased the best that we have to offer as a state.”
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.”
The governor said Kirk’s “political assassination” is an “attack on the American experiment,” and he has urged not just Utah residents, but Americans, to live out Kirk’s legacy by engaging peacefully and condemning political violence.
Since the assassination on Wednesday, Utah residents have organized several events honoring Kirk’s life. On Friday night, hundreds of Utah State University students gathered for a vigil hosted by the campus’ Turning Point USA chapter.
In Orem City Park on Thursday evening, students and local residents paid their respects during a candlelit vigil.
A memorial honoring Kirk at the Timpanogos Regional Hospital is filled with “We love you, Charlie” posters, flowers and American flags. More signs and flowers have been placed for Kirk on Utah Valley University’s campus.
Flags are flying throughout the state at half-staff this week, and many also gathered for a vigil at the Utah State Capitol on Wednesday evening hours after Kirk’s assassination.
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