Just minutes before an assassin killed Charlie Kirk, he was still defending his faith, The Dallas Express has learned.
Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was answering students’ questions at Utah Valley University when a single shot rang out on September 10, as The Dallas Express reported at the time. He ultimately died, leaving a legacy of faith, family, and freedom.
The prominent political commentator spent some of his last moments on earth defending his faith, said Freshman Eric Nelson, who attended the event, to The Dallas Express. An assassin shot and killed Kirk while he was answering a question about “transgender” shooters. Just moments prior, Kirk was defending his faith.
A student – a former atheist turned Mormon – had asked Kirk why he was Protestant. Nelson said Kirk’s response was peaceful, and he started his response with something like, “I’ve always said I love Mormons.”
“He brought up some archeological evidence … he was asking him, ‘Where are the gold plates now,’ like in the Mormon church,” Nelson said. “But he ended it by saying, ‘We both have different views, but we both believe in Jesus. That’s what matters.’”
A ‘Packed’ Event
Nelson attended high school in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and had seen Kirk’s videos on social media.
“I wasn’t like a huge fan or anything,” Nelson said. “But I heard that he was coming to my school, and he was going to speak at noon.”
Nelson said he got out of class a few minutes before the event and was already going to be in the area, so he decided to check it out.
“I got there, and immediately it’s packed. You can’t even walk without bumping into people,” Nelson said. “I didn’t see a single police officer the whole time, even before it happened. I was surprised.”
The school had placed six police officers throughout the crowd of roughly 3,000 people, according to BBC News. Nelson said “they weren’t super visible,” so he was “disappointed” with the lack of security. There was also no bag check to access the event.
Most of the crowd was supporting Kirk, but a minority were protesting.
Nelson said some were “passionate enough to make vulgar signs,” calling President Donald Trump a pedophile and calling Kirk a liar. He said others waved pride flags.
“The yelling between both sides got more and more aggressive and targeted,” Nelson said. “That’s what made me think about, ‘I don’t see a single police officer here.’”
Nelson expressed frustration with the high tensions and extreme rhetoric between students.
“You guys could be in the same class. You guys are screaming how you hate each other, and you don’t even know each other,” Nelson said. “Obviously, you shouldn’t kill someone for their opinion that they’re expressing.”
The Assassination
“I only heard one shot,” Nelson said.
The crowd heard a “crack” echoing through the plaza – but wasn’t initially sure if it was a gunshot, according to Nelson. He was watching the student asking Kirk a question when the bullet struck.
“I saw him fall down,” Nelson said. “Everyone went down to the ground, laid on the ground for probably 10, 15 seconds until there wasn’t another one.”
Once the attendees realized they weren’t the target, they saw their chance to escape.
“Everyone just started running toward the doors of the buildings around us, and then down the halls,” Nelson said. “Everyone screaming, some people crying, some people laughing – I don’t know if they didn’t knew what had happened.”
Some people hid inside bathrooms, while most ran away from campus “as fast as they could,” he said. Nelson and his roommates ran away as far as possible, and he called his girlfriend to tell her what happened – and that he was alright.
“I didn’t know if he had actually gotten shot until I ran into some people who were in the front row,” Nelson said. “They were like, ‘Yeah, he just got shot in the neck, there was blood everywhere. He’s dead.’”
The Aftermath
After Kirk’s security team carried him away, he said the scene was almost “abandoned.” Some people approached the scene of the murder.
“It was like chaos afterward,” he said.
A video shows one individual stealing hats from the table, moments after Kirk’s assassination.
“Man filmed stealing hats from Charlie Kirk’s table and throwing them to the crowd, just moments after Kirk was shot and evacuated by his security team,” posted one X user, Oil London.
Police soon converged on the campus.
“Immediately, we could hear sirens on the way to campus,” Nelson said. “They, not immediately, but pretty quickly, locked everything down.”
Utah Valley University canceled classes until Monday. The school has been offering counseling to students, according to Nelson, who praised the school’s response to make things “as right as they can.”
People were calling Nelson to confirm if he was okay, but he knew he wasn’t the target. He said he keeps thinking about this.
“Myself, I’m okay,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Am I okay? Because he’s not okay.’”