“Erika Kirk Posts Bible Verse Hours Before Husband Charlie Kirk Shot at Utah University”

OREM, UTAH: Just hours before Char­lie Kirk was trag­i­cal­ly shot on stage at Utah Val­ley Uni­ver­si­ty, his wife, Eri­ka Kirk (née Frantzve), sought solace in scrip­ture. At 9:45 a.m. on Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 10, she post­ed on X: “Psalm 46:1 – God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trou­ble.” By mid­day, the 31-year-old con­ser­v­a­tive activist and founder of Turn­ing Point USA had been fatal­ly shot in the neck while address­ing a crowd of stu­dents, leav­ing the com­mu­ni­ty and sup­port­ers in shock. Author­i­ties quick­ly secured the cam­pus, and inves­ti­ga­tions into the attack are ongo­ing, as mourn­ers pay trib­ute to Kirk’s impact on polit­i­cal activism and youth engage­ment.

Tragedy at Utah Val­ley Uni­ver­si­ty

Char­lie Kirk, cofounder of Turn­ing Point USA, was in the midst of his “Prove Me Wrong” cam­pus event when chaos erupt­ed. Around 12:10 p.m. local time, gun­fire was report­ed from a near­by build­ing approx­i­mate­ly 200 yards away.

A uni­ver­si­ty spokesper­son con­firmed that the shoot­ing occurred rough­ly 20 min­utes into Kirk’s debate. Bill Mason, Com­mis­sion­er for the Utah Depart­ment of Pub­lic Safe­ty, lat­er stat­ed that Kirk was rushed to a hos­pi­tal in a pri­vate vehi­cle, but trag­i­cal­ly he did not sur­vive.

At the time of pub­li­ca­tion, no sus­pect had been for­mal­ly iden­ti­fied. FBI agent Kash Patel and Utah Gov­er­nor Spencer Cox announced that a “per­son of inter­est” had been tak­en into cus­tody but was sub­se­quent­ly released.

“The sub­ject in cus­tody has been released after an inter­ro­ga­tion by law enforce­ment. Our inves­ti­ga­tion con­tin­ues, and we will con­tin­ue to release infor­ma­tion in the inter­est of trans­paren­cy,” Patel, 45, said.

Gov­er­nor Cox described the shoot­ing as a “polit­i­cal assas­si­na­tion,” under­scor­ing the ten­sion and nation­al atten­tion sur­round­ing the attack. Author­i­ties have increased secu­ri­ty mea­sures on cam­pus and are work­ing with local and fed­er­al law enforce­ment to deter­mine the motive and ensure the safe­ty of stu­dents and staff. The com­mu­ni­ty and polit­i­cal cir­cles are reel­ing from the shock­ing loss of the 31-year-old activist, whose events drew thou­sands of young atten­dees nation­wide.

The killing sent shock­waves through Wash­ing­ton and the nation. In an evening video address, for­mer Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump imme­di­ate­ly placed blame on the “rad­i­cal left,” call­ing the attack a tar­get­ed polit­i­cal act and urg­ing Amer­i­cans to stand against grow­ing polit­i­cal vio­lence.

For­mer pres­i­dents from across the polit­i­cal spec­trum quick­ly joined in con­demn­ing the attack. Pres­i­dent Joe Biden wrote, “There is no place in our coun­try for this kind of vio­lence. It must end now. Jill and I are pray­ing for Char­lie Kirk’s fam­i­ly and loved ones.”

Barack Oba­ma also addressed the tragedy on X, stat­ing, “We don’t yet know what moti­vat­ed the per­son who shot and killed Char­lie Kirk, but this kind of despi­ca­ble vio­lence has no place in our democ­ra­cy. Michelle and I will be pray­ing for Charlie’s fam­i­ly tonight, espe­cial­ly his wife Eri­ka and their two young chil­dren.”

Just a few months before the tragedy, Char­lie and Eri­ka Kirk had cel­e­brat­ed their fourth wed­ding anniver­sary. Reflect­ing on their mar­riage, Char­lie wrote on social media, “Today marks 4 years of being mar­ried to @mrserikakirk. Sec­ond to accept­ing Jesus, it’s the best deci­sion I’ve ever made. She is bold, smart, loy­al, and beau­ti­ful. Hap­py anniver­sary Eri­ka, I love you.”

The cou­ple tied the knot in 2021 dur­ing a “very inti­mate” Ari­zona cer­e­mo­ny after dat­ing since 2019. They went on to wel­come their daugh­ter, Sarah Rose, in August 2022, and a son in May 2024, whose name has not been pub­licly revealed.

Char­lie often shared that he knew Eri­ka was “The One” after their first “very, very long din­ner,” telling a Turn­ing Point USA audi­ence last year that he real­ized it “almost imme­di­ate­ly.” Eri­ka, too, reflect­ed on their rela­tion­ship just weeks ago in an Insta­gram post:

“Just for some encour­age­ment, sure you can be ‘in love,’ but my good­ness, when you’ve found ‘The One’ and you’re in covenant, that’s a whole dif­fer­ent lev­el of love. And to the one who’s still wait­ing, hold steady. Don’t lose heart. God is faith­ful and Heav­en is nev­er late. His sto­ry for you will absolute­ly be worth the wait. I promise. I tru­ly promise.”