‘We are all Charlie Kirk’: Hundreds turn out to Riverfront Park to honor slain conservative speaker

Charlie Kirk’s kindness stood out to Bree Pollack when she met the founder of Turning Point USA and conservative activist known for engaging with students on controversial topics at college campuses.

“Charlie was unafraid to speak the truth, even if people found it offensive,” said Pollack, president of the Whitworth University Turning Point chapter.

Pollack addressed hundreds of people, who illuminated the night Saturday with candles and cellphone lights held high at a candlelight vigil honoring Kirk’s life in Riverfront Park.

Kirk, 31, was shot Wednesday at a speaking event at Utah Valley University. The suspected killer, 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson, was arrested over a day later.

Kirk founded Turning Point USA at the age of 18, and the organization now has chapters in more than 850 higher education institutions, including Gonzaga University and Whitworth. Chapters at both universities hosted Saturday’s vigil at the downtown Spokane park’s Clocktower.

Pollack, who met Kirk volunteering at a University of Montana campus event where Kirk was speaking, said he was an influential political leader, but most importantly, a Christian.

“Charlie was a man of courage and resilience, of character and integrity, who inspired so many people, myself included, to stand up for truth,” she said.

Pollack said she was “utterly shocked” when she learned Kirk was shot.

“I have never been more grieved by someone’s death before, especially of a man I met only once,” she said.

Since Kirk’s death, Pollack said her Turning Point chapter grew more than 9% and has received more support in such a short amount of time than it ever had before.

“This is because people are recognizing that unwarranted, unprovoked political violence has no place in our country,” Pollack said.

Shea Thompson, Gonzaga’s Turning Point president, said he was so moved when he heard Kirk speak in person. He said Kirk exemplified promoting civil discourse on college campuses.

“When I met Charlie, he was one of the most hardworking people I have ever met,” Thompson said.

He called Kirk bigger than just a man.

“It is a movement of students reigniting the values of freedom of speech, the love for the country, and frankly, the love of Christ, because that’s what he stood for and he actually died doing,” Thompson said.

Mike Pollack, Bree Pollack’s father, and Matt Shea, a former Washington lawmaker and pastor at On Fire Ministries in Spokane, called upon the crowd to take the baton Kirk handed to the country.

“We must take his baton that he has handed to us and run with it, and let his courage and wisdom continue and prevail,” Mike Pollack told the crowd, some of whom were holding American flags and many dressed in red, white and blue.

Shea said Kirk loved Jesus Christ and loved his family “fiercely.”

“Charlie challenged all of us to pursue Jesus, to get married, to have a family, to pass down our values and to leave a legacy,” he said.

He said Kirk was one for action, not emotion.

“He would challenge all of us not to spend one more moment mourning him, but instead use this moment to save souls and save America, and I think we rise to that challenge tonight,” Shea said.

He called Kirk a “martyr” and said that America’s high school and colleges will be flooded with more Turning Point chapters and Jesus.

“This act of violence was not just a shot at Charlie Kirk, it was a shot at the First Amendment, it was a shot at the heart of America and it was a shot at God,” Shea said. “But let me tell you tonight, they missed, because we are all Charlie Kirk.”