Charlie Kirk, engaging with a Utah Valley University audience member on his American Comeback Tour, was killed on Sept. 10 in what authorities have labeled an act of political violence. Many Utica University students were left stunned about his death, regardless of where they stood on political issues.
Terrance Jones, a first-year criminal justice major, was at home and sick in bed when he found out that Kirk was killed. First thinking the news was fake, he then noticed that group chats with different friends began popping up on his phone and no one could believe what was happening.
“My jaw dropped,” he said.
After seeing so many memes labeling Kirk as a “rage baiter,” Jones was surprised to read he was actually assassinated.
“What has the world come to?” Jones said. “To assassinate someone who really has no control in anything we do day to day other than to say words?”
First-year student Jonaeilyn Rodriguez, a Business Management major, said she was genuinely shocked and “mindblown” when she heard that Kirk passed away. Her TikTok For You page was filled with videos of his death and peoples’ responses.
“I think that the way people are going around celebrating his death, whether they shared his ideals or not, is an outrage,” Rodriguez said. “Those who are celebrating his death while he has family and friends who are mourning him are just sad.”
As a Christian woman, senior Briana Ajayi was not a supporter of Kirk’s but did not believe his life should have been taken away from him.
“I have care for his family and kids as they will see his assassination online when they get older, and it’s already all over the place, and the people celebrating his death online are not okay. I’m not okay with that,” Ajayi said. “I just did not agree with anything he had to say as a person. I still think he was purposefully spreading propaganda and spreading disgusting racist, sexist and homophobic things.”
Ajayi said she also doesn’t like how Kirk’s legions of online fans have now made him a martyr on the internet.
For Communication and Media major Evan Humphrey, Kirk’s death caused him to go outside of social media and check news outlets such as ABC News and The New York Times to get reliable up-to-date information. Humphrey knew those organizations would be tasteful in which videos and content they published and did not want to look at repeated graphic videos on social media.
“I hate that this happened,” Humphrey said. “But these are things we talked about in my Censorship and journalism classes because if you’re going into (that field) then you have to consume different kinds of news.”
Humphrey didn’t always agree with Kirk’s viewpoints but respected that he put himself out there and gave people a platform to talk. He said he considered his death so shocking that it was one of those “where were you” moments like the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
“The way I look at it: Wife, two kids. Just a sad day overall,” Humphrey said.
Biology major Jerry Almas, who is also Outdoors Club president, said Kirk’s death is “absolutely disgusting.”
“We should not kill due to different opinions, and I feel for his children and wife at this time,” Almas said.
While some are grieving over his death, others on social media were seen celebrating and saying he deserved it, which is something many don’t agree with.
“Some are stating that he got what he deserved protecting the second amendment and it was coming, others say ‘I don’t care about that white man’ which is just horrible,” Almas said “People can and should have their own opinions but to find joy in his assasination is disgusting.”
Rodriguez believes the way in which Charlie Kirk died will either negatively or positively impact activists who share his ideas and beliefs.
She added: “Either more activists will rise to the occasion and continue to deliver the same messages Kirk did, or they will avoid speaking their minds due to fear of being assassinated the same way he was.”
