On September 10, 2025, Charlie Kirk, 31, was assassinated while speaking at Utah Valley University during his American Comeback Tour. The conservative commentator and co-founder of Turning Point USA was shot while discussing gun violence. “In an instant, one of America’s most polarizing figures was gone,” leaving politics and the public stunned.

For his wife, Erika Frantzve Kirk, and their two children, it was the devastating loss of a husband and father. Erika, a former Miss Arizona and outspoken Christian activist, had always stood by him. To her, he wasn’t a political figure but “the man who read bedtime stories to their children and who still tried to make her laugh.”

At the exact moment of the shooting, their one-year-old child at home suddenly burst into uncontrollable sobs. The nanny described it as “otherworldly,” saying, “I’ve never heard him cry like that before — it was like he knew.”

Erika collapsed after receiving the call that Charlie was gone. Friends later saw the baby’s cries as either coincidence or a mysterious bond between father and son.

For Erika and the children, September 10 was not politics — it was “the day their world shattered.”