During Charlie Kirk's funeral in Glendale, Arizona, over the weekend (21 September), Erika Kirk revealed what she saw on her husband Charlie's body after he was taken to hospital.
Kirk, a far-right activist best known for his outspoken views and Second Amendment advocacy, was fatally shot while speaking at a university event in Utah on 10 September, with the suspected shooter believed to be 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.
Speaking during the proceedings at the State Farm Stadium, Erika began: "On the afternoon of September 10th, I arrived at a Utah hospital to do the unthinkable. To look directly at my husband’s murdered body."
She continued: "I saw the wound that ended his life.
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"I felt everything you would expect to feel; I felt shock, I felt horror, and a level of heartache that I didn't even know existed."
"But," Erika went on before softly smiling. "There was something else too. Even in death, I could see the man that I love. I saw the one single grey hair on the side of his head, which I never told him about - now he knows."
She continued: "I also saw on his lips the faintest smile, and that told me something important. It revealed to me a great mercy from God in this tragedy.
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"When I saw that, it told me Charlie didn’t suffer. Even the doctor told me. It was something so instant that even if Charlie had been shot in the operating room itself, nothing could have been done.
"There was no pain, no fear, no agony. One moment, Charlie was doing what he loved, arguing and debating on campus, fighting for the gospel and truth in front of a big crowd, and then he blinked and saw his saviour in paradise."
A little over a week after Kirk's death, it was revealed that the doors of the car, in which Kirk was initially transported to the hospital, needed to be kept open through the entire journey.
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The revelation was made by a close friend of Kirk, 63-year-old Christian author Frank Turek, who was in attendance on the day the 31-year-old was killed.
Appearing in a recent episode of his Cross Examined show, he recalled administering CPR to Kirk in the back of the car during the trip.
"Charlie Kirk was literally a son to me," Turek claimed. "So, if your son got hit, what would you do? I got in the car - because if there was any way I could save him, I had to do something."
He added: "Charlie is laid out right in front of me, and Charlie's so tall we can't close the door."
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While Turek reportedly repeated, 'Come on Charlie, come on, come on', in the back of the car, Kirk's security team was attempting to stop the bleeding from his neck, acting 'calmly but swiftly doing exactly what they were trained to do'.
Despite both attempts to save his life, however, Turek says Kirk had already died by the time they reached the hospital.
"Charlie wasn't there," he continued. "His eyes were fixed. He wasn't looking at me, he was looking past me right into eternity.
"He was with Jesus already."
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Turek went on: "There was nothing any of us could do about it. We were giving him CPR but nothing was happening.
"It wasn't like if we had better first aid or we had better medical facilities or we were faster to the hospital, we could have saved him. We couldn't."
He continued: "So if that's any comfort at all, Charlie didn't suffer. He was gone, he was with Jesus.
"Absent from the body, present with the Lord."
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence, contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677.
Topics: Charlie Kirk, US News, Politics, News
Rhiannon Ingle