A year after Charlie Kirk was fatally shot on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Turning Point USA brought supporters back to the site Thursday night in what the organization called a deliberate act of reclamation. Andrew Sypher, TPUSA's chief field officer, told the gathering he had been standing roughly 10 feet to Kirk's left when the shot rang out on September 10, 2025.
Sypher set the tone early. "Steps from these doors is the ground where evil unfolded," he told the crowd, then drew a clear line on the purpose of the return: "We did not come back to rehearse the crime scene." The event included worship performances, video tributes, and the unveiling of a new statue that will remain permanently on the UVU campus.
Andrew Kolvet, TPUSA spokesman and executive producer of "The Charlie Kirk Show," described the gathering to Fox News host Jesse Watters as intentional by design. "We're doing an event in Utah right now at UVU, a deliberate act reclaiming that space in his honor and for his legacy," Kolvet said.
Sage Lloyd, president of UVU's TPUSA chapter and a witness to the assassination, addressed the crowd on what the year had cost. "A year ago, our lives changed forever," she said, describing a period of "fear, grief, confusion, and heartbreak" among students who had every reason to walk away from campus organizing. They did not. "The same students who witnessed a political assassination are willing to stand up, speak out and keep moving forward," Lloyd said. She closed with a statement of the chapter's position: "Our chapter is still here, we are still speaking, and we are nowhere near done."
Sypher disclosed a text he said Kirk sent him the morning of the shooting. "Andrew, I'm not here to pick a fight. I am here to show them kindness," Kirk wrote, according to Sypher. Sypher described that message as the day's assignment: "To talk with students who hate you. To share the truth, and to not become cruel doing it." Kirk was killed shortly after sending it.
Kirk's widow, Erika Kirk, marked the anniversary separately with a black-and-white wedding photograph of the couple holding hands, overlaid with two words: "...until Heaven."
UVU closed its campus for the anniversary. The university did not organize the memorial, but UVU President Dr. Jon Anderson had previously told Fox News Digital the school supported TPUSA's use of campus space for the event.