{"id":217627,"date":"2025-09-11T07:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/217627\/"},"modified":"2025-09-11T07:40:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T07:40:18","slug":"young-supporters-remember-charlie-kirks-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/217627\/","title":{"rendered":"Young supporters remember Charlie Kirk’s legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Charlie Charlie Kirk’s death leaves supporters in shock<\/a> <\/p>\n

Conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed at a Utah college campus event on Wednesday. FOX 10’s Brian Webb hears from two young men about Kirk’s impact on their lives.<\/p>\n

PHOENIX<\/strong> – Conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot and killed at a Utah college campus event on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Kirk was known as a conservative political influencer<\/strong><\/a>, particularly among young voters. He often visited college campuses to engage with students on topics from politics to faith.<\/p>\n

Two young men, drawn to Kirk and his message, shared their reactions to his death: One, a former high school chapter president of Turning Point USA, had met Kirk several times. The other was standing just feet away when Kirk was killed.<\/p>\n

\"Charlie <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“Honestly, my first impression was someone has thrown a firecracker, or played a joke to disrupt the event,” said Michael, a college student in Utah who went to the Sept. 10 event to ask Kirk a question about faith. He heard a single gunshot about 10 feet away.<\/p>\n

Kirk was at Utah Valley University to kick off his American Comeback Tour<\/a> on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n

“People were anticipating a second gunshot and were hesitant to move until there was a second shot, but after 20, 30 seconds went by without a second gunshot, people kind of bolted for the exits,” Michael said.<\/p>\n

Jaden Grandon, a former Turning Point USA chapter president at Cactus Shadows High School, said the news was shocking.<\/p>\n

“Aside from politics, you have a family man, and you have a man who has two children and a wife, so it\u2019s just shocking,” Grandon said. “I think it\u2019s a shock for the country and for the whole world.”<\/p>\n

Grandon said he was drawn to Kirk for more than politics, but also for his faith.<\/p>\n

“There was always a light about him, an ease when you talk to him,” he said. “He just seemed like he genuinely cared, and he genuinely just loved people.”<\/p>\n

Both young men were drawn to Kirk and his message, and are now left with the emotional scars of political violence.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Michael and Jaden Grandon <\/p>\n

“It\u2019s finally me. I am finally experiencing I\u2019m a victim of gun violence in a way,” Michael said.<\/p>\n

Grandon said his faith in Kirk’s Christian beliefs brings him comfort.<\/p>\n

“The thing that brings me comfort the most is that I know that he was an advent follower of Christ,” Grandon said. “I know that his walk with God was very \u2026 he seemed like he had a very strong relationship with God, so I am very comfortable with the fact that if he has passed onto the next life that he will be just fine.”<\/p>\n

Turning Point USA chapters across the country boast nearly 250,000 students.<\/p>\n

Crime and Public Safety<\/a>Phoenix<\/a>Utah<\/a>News<\/a>Politics<\/a>Arizona<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Charlie Kirk’s death leaves supporters in shock Conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder, Charlie Kirk, was shot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":217628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,6082,1588,50,1589,80,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,20562],"class_list":{"0":"post-217627","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-crime-publicsafety","12":"tag-maricopa-county","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-phoenix","15":"tag-politics","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa","22":"tag-ut"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115184535316207222","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}