Why Charlie Kirk had to be driven to hospital with door open entire journey as last moments are described
A week on, and harrowing new details are still emerging on the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Amongst these is the news that the door of the car, in which the political activist was initially transported to hospital after sustaining a single gunshot wound to his neck, needed to be kept open through the entire journey.
The revelation was made by a close friend to Kirk, Christian author Frank Turek, who was in attendance on the day the 31-year-old was killed.
For those in need of a reminder, professional debater Kirk held a rally at Utah Valley University last week (10 Sept), which was attended by over 3,000 Republican voters.
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Whilst in the midst of answering a question from a guest about the rise of gun violence in the States, the father-of-two was fatally shot in the neck by alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who is suspected to have been hiding on the rooftop of a nearby campus building.
Though Kirk was subsequently rushed to Timpanogos Regional Hospital in Orem, his political ally Donald Trump later confirmed that he'd died.
As we say, in the week since the gruesome political murder, increasing amounts of information about the attack have been released to the public.
Earlier this week, Kristi Noem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, revealed what Kirk had written in a private text sent to her the day before his death, whilst a neuroscientist discussed his physical reaction to the bullet wound, revealing why he'd raised his arms.
As we say, however, Kirk's friend, 63-year-old writer Turek has since given a podcast interview about the Conservative's murder, recalling his journey to the hospital where medics attempted to save his life.
Appearing in the latest episode of his Cross Examined show, the religious author recalled administering him CPR to Kirk in the back of the car during the nail-biting 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 anyway 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."
Whilst Turek reportedly repeated, 'Come on Charlie, come on, come on', in the back of the car, Kirk's security team is 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."
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."
Such was also the take of neuropsychologist Derek Van Schaik, who analysed the footage of the incident and claimed Kirk would not have 'had time to process' what had just happened to him after being shot.
"When someone suffers a catastrophic wound to the neck that destroys a carotid artery and jugular vein, the mind only has a fleeting window to possibly register what happened," he explained.
"However, in Charlie's case, and after analysing the footage with a digital timer, he was conscious for no more than four-tenths of a second after impact. Far too fast for his brain to even register what had happened to him."
According to Van Schaik, Kirk would have felt 'no panic, no dread, no realisation that he was about to die'.
Topics: Charlie Kirk, US News, Politics, News
Rhianna Benson