widow

CHARLIE Kirk’s grieving widow has said she forgives the man who allegedly assassinated her husband in a heart-wrenching speech.

A distraught Erika Kirk broke down in tears as she took to the stage at her husband Charlie Kirk’s memorial in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday.

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Erika was visibly emotional as she addressed 100,000 people who packed the stadium – including President Donald Trump.

She stunned mourners during her emotional speech saying she forgave her late husband’s killer.

“I forgive him,” she told the crowd, breaking down in tears.

“I forgive him because it was what Christ did. And is what Charlie would do.

“The answer to hate is not hate, the answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.

“After Charlie’s assassination, we didn’t see violence, we didn’t see rioting, we didn’t see revolution.

“Instead, we saw what my husband always prayed he would see in this country. We saw revival [of Christian faith].”

Dressed in a white blazer and matching trousers, Erika thanked attendees for travelling from across the globe to celebrate her late husband.

She told mourners she was living through a “heartache I never knew existed” as she delivered her moving tribute.

Remembering the tragic day of her husband’s assassination, Erika said: “On the afternoon of September 10th, I arrived at a Utah hospital to do the unthinkable: To look directly at my husband’s murdered body.

“I saw the wound that ended his life.”

Erika added: “I will miss him so much.”

The heartbroken widow would end her emotional speech by speaking directly to her late husband in a touching moment.

She said: “I love you Charlie, baby. I will make you so proud.”

President Donald Trump, his Vice President JD Vance and billionaire Elon Musk were also at the huge memorial service at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona — home of the Arizona Cardinals American football team.

Musk told reporters: “Charlie was someone who believed in dialogue and open debate. He was a man of ideas. He spoke eloquently and basically never raised his voice. He was a man of peace and now he has been murdered in cold blood.

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“He was killed because his voice made a difference.

“He was showing people the Light and he was killed by the Dark.”

Vice President JD Vance described Kirk as having built a movement that has “changed the course of American history”.

He told Mr Kirk’s sea of supporters: “They tried to silence my friend Charlie Kirk but we are spreading his message loudly.”

Mr Vance, whose Catholicism has been central to his own political rise and mission, added: “We must remember that he is a hero to the United States of America — and he is a martyr for the Christian faith.”

He noted that the Trump administration was at the memorial not just because of their relationship with Kirk, but because “we wouldn’t be here without him”.

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Kirk was buried on Saturday at a private funeral in Arizona attended by friends and family.

Tearful fans queued up for 12 hours for the first-come, first-admitted service organised by Turning Point USA, the high school organisation set up by Kirk to help spread conservative politics on campuses.

Some wore black, others attended in flag-emblazoned T-shirts and Make America Great Again hats.

Sporting a Trump T-shirt, Aaron Knight, 28, from Houston, Texas, reckoned: “Charlie Kirk was a godly Christian man.

“He provided a sacrifice for this country and the fight for free speech. We are here in mourning but also celebration for the incredible man he was.”

Ashley January, 35, brought her seven-month-old baby Theodore from Kansas to “witness history”. She said she and husband Skylar “fell in love with Charlie after seeing him in Kansas.”

She added: “We want to raise our son to have the same morals as him. It’s going to be something Theo will read in his history books and he can say he was there.”

A man said he had camped out from 8pm the night before.
One woman even brought a buggy full of puppies with her.

The nearby Desert Diamond Arena served as overflow for an additional 19,000 people who watched the event on TV screens.

Kirk, 31, was shot dead while giving a speech at Utah Valley University earlier this month.

Tyler Robinson, 22, is charged with aggravated murder.
He is in custody and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Yesterday Mrs Kirk told the New York Times she could not say if he deserved to die as well.

She said: “I told our lawyer, I want the government to decide this. I do not want that man’s blood on my ledger.

“When I get to heaven, and Jesus is like, ‘Uh, eye for an eye? Is that how we do it?’.

“And that keeps me from being in heaven, from being with Charlie?”

Before the service started, photos of Kirk were projected on big screens accompanied by a playlist of praise and worship songs.

Among those paying respects and giving speeches were President Trump’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr, right-wing political commentator Tucker Carlson and homeland security adviser and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller.

Kirk founded Turning Point USA — whose headquarters are in Phoenix — in 2012, at the age of 18.

Mrs Kirk has been unanimously elected to succeed her late husband as CEO of the organisation.

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“Stop the killing of our spouses.” The widow of slain Al Jazeera journalist Mohammed Qreiqeh says he was a kind, loving father and husband before he was assassinated by Israeli forces to silence his coverage on the Gaza war.

WASHINGTON — Coming to court this week, a police officer’s widow wanted to prove that a man assaulted her husband during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol and ultimately was responsible for her husband’s suicide nine days later. A jury’s verdict on Friday amounted to only a partial victory for Erin Smith in a lawsuit over her husband’s death.

The eight-member jury held a 69-year-old chiropractor, David Walls-Kaufman, liable for assaulting Metropolitan Police Officer Jeffrey Smith inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They will hear more trial testimony before deciding whether to award Erin Smith any monetary damages over her husband’s assault.

But the judge presiding over the civil trial dismissed Erin Smith’s wrongful death claim against Walls-Kaufman before jurors began deliberating. U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said no reasonable juror could conclude that Walls-Kaufman’s actions were capable of causing a traumatic brain injury leading to Jeffrey Smith’s death.

Reyes divided the trial into two stages: one on the merits of Erin Smith’s claims and another on damages. The damages phase is expected to stretch into next week.

Erin Smith claimed Walls-Kaufman gave her husband a concussion as they scuffled inside the Capitol. Jeffrey Smith was driving to work for the first time after the Capitol riot when he shot and killed himself with his service weapon.

His widow claims Walls-Kaufman struck her 35-year-old husband in the head with his own police baton inside the Capitol, causing psychological and physical trauma that led to his suicide. Jeffrey Smith had no history of mental health problems before the Jan. 6 riot, but his mood and behavior changed after suffering a concussion, according to his wife and parents.

Walls-Kaufman, who lived near the Capitol, denies assaulting Jeffrey Smith. He says any injuries that the officer suffered on Jan. 6 occurred later in the day, when another rioter threw a pole that struck Jeffrey Smith around his head.

Walls-Kaufman served a 60-day prison sentence after pleading guilty to a Capitol riot-related misdemeanor in January 2023, but he was pardoned in January. On his first day back in the White House, President Donald Trump pardoned, commuted prison sentences or ordered the dismissal of cases for all of the nearly 1,600 people charged in the attack.

Trump’s sweeping act of clemency didn’t erase Erin Smith’s lawsuit against Walls-Kaufman.

Erin Smith, the trial’s first witness, recalled packing a lunch for her husband and kissing him as he headed off to work on Jan. 15, 2021, for the first time after the riot.

“I told him I loved him, said I would see him when he got home,” she testified.

Within hours, police officers knocked on her door and informed her that her husband was dead. She was stunned to learn that he shot himself with his service weapon in his own car.

“It was the most traumatic words I’ve ever heard,” she recalled. “You just don’t know what to do.”

Walls-Kaufman’s attorney, Hughie Hunt, urged jurors to “separate emotion” and concentrate on the facts of the case.

“This is tragic, but that doesn’t place anything at the foot of my client,” Hunt said during the trial’s opening statements.

Jeffrey Smith’s body camera captured video of his scuffle with Walls-Kaufman. In his testimony, Walls-Kaufman said he was overcome by “sensory overload” and “mass confusion” as police tried to usher the crowd out of the Capitol.

“I couldn’t tell who was pushing who or from what direction,” he said.

The police department medically evaluated Jeffrey Smith and cleared him to return to full duty before he killed himself. Hunt said there is no evidence that his client intentionally struck Jeffrey Smith.

“The claim rests entirely on ambiguous video footage subject to interpretation and lacks corroborating eyewitness testimony,” Hunt wrote in a court filing in the case.

More than 100 law enforcement officers were injured during the riot. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick collapsed and died a day after engaging with the rioters. A medical examiner later determined he suffered a stroke and died of natural causes. Howard Liebengood, a Capitol police officer who responded to the riot, also died by suicide after the attack.

In 2022, the District of Columbia Police and Firefighters’ Retirement and Relief Board determined that Jeffrey Smith was injured in the line of duty and the injury was the “sole and direct cause of his death,” according to the lawsuit.

Kunzelman writes for the Associated Press.