Protester slammed for mimicking Charlie Kirk's assassination at Turning Point USA event
Thomas Bamford
Featured Image Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
A protester turned up outside a Turning Point USA summit in San Antonio wearing a papier-mache head modelled on Charlie Kirk, and proceeded to drop to the ground in a mock reenactment of the conservative commentator's assassination.
The stunt was captured on video and shared by TPUSA's Frontlines account on X. In the clip, the individual, wearing a white T-shirt bearing the word "Freedom", collapses to the floor in an apparent imitation of the moment Kirk was killed, before standing up and walking off without looking back.
The incident took place on Friday, while Kirk's widow, Erika, who has since taken over as CEO of Turning Point USA following her husband's death, was inside preparing to address the organisation's Women's Leadership Summit at the San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter.
TPUSA described the Kirk imitator as a "radical leftwinger," adding that demonstrators had spent much of the morning mocking the assassination outside the venue.
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Chants of "he deserved to die" could be heard in the video, the account said.
TPUSA contributor Jack Posobiec appeared on Fox News to condemn the protest.
Speaking to the channel, he said: "When people tell you who they are, believe them.
"The left isn't out there feeling sorry for the murder of Charlie Kirk, they're not apologizing for it, they're out there celebrating it.
"This is resentment. They hate the fact that Turning Point USA is out there showing young people specifically a different path forward, not from hating their country, from hating men, from hating women, from hating capitalism, from hating innovation, to actually loving their country, building loving families. And that's exactly why they're attacking Erika Kirk and our entire team."
Online reaction was similarly damning, with commentators branding the stunt "evil."
The disruption didn't end outside. When Erika Kirk took to the stage, a woman in the auditorium interrupted her speech with a heckle. Kirk paused, addressed the woman directly, and told the room: "It's important to remember that happiness comes and goes, and I pray that you find it.
"That's an important moment because that just shows duty to faithfulness gives life meaning, and we must pray for our enemies and those that do not feel like their life has meaning. And that's a perfect example of that. A perfect example. You pray for your enemies. You pray for those that persecute you."
The summit had already been the subject of a bomb threat the previous week, which led to the arrest of a 26-year-old man charged with two felony counts of making a terroristic threat causing public fear.
Charlie Kirk was shot dead by a sniper on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, on September 10 last year.
A suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested two days later and charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and commission of a violent offence in the presence of a child.