A memorial service for right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was killed in an assassination attempt in the United States, will be held on the morning of September 21st at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, a venue capable of holding over 60,000 people. The announcement was made by Turning Point, the organization Kirk co-founded, in a post on the social media platform X. The public was invited to join the commemoration to “celebrate the extraordinary life and lasting legacy of Charlie Kirk, an American legend.”
Kirk, 31, was fatally shot on Wednesday during an outdoor event on a campus in the state of Utah. His alleged assassin, Tyler Robinson, was arrested on Thursday evening after surrendering to police.
The BBC reports on its website that former President Donald Trump is expected to attend the memorial service, alongside Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance and Senator Marco Rubio.
Meanwhile, FBI officials report that the alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, lived with his transgender partner, a man transitioning to female. They shared an apartment in Saint George, Utah. Bureau officials stated that Robinson’s partner is fully cooperating with the investigation, has been “extremely cooperative,” and stated they “had no idea” Robinson was allegedly planning to assassinate the founder of Turning Point USA.
Moments before a bullet fatally struck him, Kirk was speaking with a member of the audience on the campus of Utah Valley University who had asked him if he knew “how many American transgender people had been mass shooters in the last 10 years,” to which Kirk had replied, “too many.” The individual then pressed, “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America in the last 10 years?” Kirk retorted, “Counting or not counting gang violence?” before being shot and killed.
Following the murder, Robinson joked in a chat with an acquaintance that it was his “lookalike,” according to The New York Times. The FBI had just released images of a young man in a hat and glasses fleeing the university and asked for the public’s help in identifying him. Tagging Robinson on the messaging platform Discord, the acquaintance attached the images and wrote “wya — where are you?” suggesting Robinson resembled the wanted man. He replied within a minute, writing that his “lookalike” was apparently trying to “get me in trouble.” “Tyler killed Charlie!!!!” wrote another user, also in jest.
This occurred on Thursday afternoon; Robinson would not be arrested and charged with Kirk’s murder until that night. The chat, frequented by about 20 people, included many who had not seen Robinson in person for years. The messages, the NYT explains, do not clarify the motive for the ambush.
After Robinson ‘joked’ that the gunman was his doppelgänger, another user suggested the group could report him to claim the FBI’s $100,000 reward. “Only if I get a cut,” Robinson replied. Someone else then added, “Whatever you do, don’t go to a McDonald’s anytime soon,” a reference to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who was found in a McDonald’s and charged with the murder of a health insurance CEO in Manhattan. Robinson escalated the joke: “Better get rid of this poster and the exact copy of the rifle I have lying around too.” And as news outlets reported that ammunition found at the crime scene had engravings referencing “transgender ideology,” Robinson pretended to be a casual news reader: “I heard the ammo contained something about trans stuff, but they didn’t publish pictures or exact quotes.” Minutes later, he joked again: “I’m actually Charlie Kirk, I wanted to leave politics, so I faked my death, now I can live my dream life in Kansas.”