Among tears, prayers and bowed heads, over 250 people formed a circle on UF’s Plaza of the Americas to mourn the death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
UF’s Turning Point USA chapter hosted the Thursday night vigil to honor the life and legacy of the organization’s 31-year-old co-founder.
Kirk, a prominent conservative activist, was shot and killed Sept. 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University for the fall leg of “The American Comeback Tour.” Law enforcement had yet to identify the shooter as of Thursday night.
“He will go down as a martyr for this movement,” said Jennifer Garcia, a 21-year-old UF criminology senior and the president of UF Turning Point, as the vigil began.
Kirk visited UF in February as part of his nationwide tour intended to bring conservative dialogue to college campuses. He founded Turning Point USA, a nationwide conservative youth activist group with over 850 chapters across college campuses, in 2012.
At the vigil, Garcia said the Turning Point community needs to come together and continue Kirk’s work.
“Our community is hurt, our community is weak, but our community wants to make sure that we honor his legacy,” she said.
Garcia was the first of dozens to speak about the impact Kirk had on her life.
The core of his legacy, she said, is open discourse. Having met Kirk over breakfast during his stop at UF, she said the news of his death was surreal to hear. She was shocked, she said, but she believes Kirk’s death will only further mobilize the conservative youth movement.
“I know that at its core, this just showed that he did what he loved and he was a great man,” Garcia said. “A man of Christ and a true American patriot.”
Other students stepped forward to speak and mourn.
Matt O’Hara, a 21-year-old UF materials science and engineering senior, brought his acoustic guitar and led the group in a series of Christian worship songs. He said he was already planning to worship on the Plaza after Kirk’s death, then joined the vigil when he saw the crowd.
“After all this, I really do believe that this is a time for Christians to rise up and worship in spirit and truth,” he said.
Officers from UPD surrounded the area, and police vehicles were parked on street corners with lights flashing.
UF spokesperson Cynthia Roldán said the university couldn’t share details about UPD’s event security. But in light of Kirk’s death, UF will “continue to ensure individuals are able to express their ideas, free from bullying, violence or any other type of disruptive behavior,” she wrote in an email.
Community members also filtered on to UF campus for the vigil. Jennifer Friend, a 58-year-old Hawthorne resident and registered Republican, attended the vigil in bright red “Make America Great Again” clothing.
She said she was heartbroken Kirk was killed as a young father with two children. He had so much more to do, she added, and he only wanted to be remembered as a servant of God.
“One day, I think he would have been president,” Friend said. “They changed history yesterday by killing him.”
She watched the video in shock, she said. She was heartbroken and cried when the news of his death set in.
“I had to sit in my car for a little while and think about what just happened,” she said. “He was a good man.”
In January, Kirk spoke at President Donald Trump’s inauguration and was considered one of the president’s close advisers.
Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social and expressed his sympathies, writing that no one “understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”
During the president’s 9/11 memorial address at the Pentagon, Trump said he would honor Kirk with a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Noelle Mattiace, who spent two years working as a college field representative for Turning Point USA, said Kirk always made meetings feel like family. The 25-year-old said she was blessed to meet him in person a few times, and his humility shocked her.
When she first learned he was shot, she said she hoped and prayed he would make it. When he didn’t, it was devastating, she added.
“I went through all the stages of grief in a minute,” Mattiace said.
Angelina Romano, a 19-year-old UF economics sophomore, said she’s a long-time supporter of Kirk. She wore her “47” hat, a reference to Trump’s presidency, everywhere after Kirk signed it. After getting more involved with Turning Point USA, she met Kirk and got a picture with him.
“I have such a huge amount of respect for him,” Romano said. “His entire work was to try to connect people again. It was to try to open up the conversation.”
Upon seeing a close-up video of the shooting and hearing about his injury, Romano said, she attended the crisis support walk-in hours at Peabody Hall.
Romano said when she found out Kirk was dead, she called her mom with the news, sobbing on the phone.
Romano met up with other students the morning of the vigil. She needed the community's support to process the news, she said. When she learned Trump intended to award Kirk a Presidential Medal of Honor, she burst into tears.
Kirk’s death drew condemnation from students across the aisle as well.
Connor Effrain, a 21-year-old UF history senior and the president of UF College Democrats, said political violence is never justifiable. He pointed to the shooting of two Democratic Minnesota state legislators and their spouses this summer as an example of the effects of violence on all sides of the political spectrum.
“We are Americans. We're not Republicans or Democrats,” Effrain said. “We're Americans who happen to have different political beliefs, and the foundation of our great country is that we can share these beliefs and without fear of being attacked.”
He said the implications of this violence are chilling, especially concerning freedom of speech. Multiple political figures have canceled speeches and appearances since the announcement of Kirk’s death.
However, Effrain said, he also hopes the tragic event will spark reflection and change in others.
“Life is sacred. It's the thing that has the most sanctity in this world,” he said. “We should implement the right policies to make sure this doesn't happen again.”
Contact Kaysheri Haffner and Julianna Bendeck at khaffner@alligator.org and jbendeck@ufl.edu. Follow Haffner on X at @kaysheri_h.
Kaysheri Haffner is a second-year journalism major and the Criminal Justice reporter for the Alligator. When she's not on the clock, she can be found reading a book or working on a creative writing project.
