Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, is opening up about the moment she saw her husband’s body after he was fatally shot.
“His eyes were semi-open,” Erika, 36, told The New York Times in an interview published on Sunday, September 21, her first since her husband was shot and killed on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was 31.
“And he had this knowing, Mona Lisa-like half-smike,” Erika continued. “Like he died happy. Like Jesus rescued him. The bullet came, he blinked, and he was in heaven.”
Erika told the outlet she was supposed to accompany her husband to Utah for what was his first stop on a nationwide tour, but stayed behind in Arizona to help her mother, who was receiving medical treatment in a Phoenix hospital. She was at her mother’s bedside when she received a call from her husband’s assistant, Michael McCoy, who screamed, “He’s been shot!”
Related: What Charlie Kirk’s Wife Erika Said to Their Daughter After His Death
The mother of two — a 3-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son — was on her husband’s chartered plane, headed to Provo, Utah, when she was told he had been pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
“I’m looking at the clouds and the mountains,” she told The New York Times. “It was such a gorgeous day, and I was thinking: This is exactly what he last saw.”
The Turning Point USA founder was debating a large group of college students on September 10 when he was fatally shot in the neck. Video shared via social media showed Kirk answering a question about mass shootings and gun violence as he was shot from what authorities believe to be nearly 200 yards away.
Erika told The New York Times that a sheriff met her at the hospital where her husband was pronounced dead. She was then given the opportunity to see her husband’s body, but told the outlet the sheriff advised her not to — according to the officer, the bullet that killed Charlie had “ravaged” his neck.
Related: Charlie Kirk’s Wife Erika Kirk Breaks Silence After His Death
“With all due respect,” she recalled telling the sheriff, “I want to see what they did to my husband.”
The Turning Point USA founder was debating a large group of college students on September 10 when he was fatally shot in the neck. Video shared via social media showed Kirk answering a question about mass shootings and gun violence as he was shot from what authorities believe to be nearly 200 yards away.
Erika told The New York Times that a sheriff met her at the hospital where her husband was pronounced dead. She was then given the opportunity to see her husband’s body, but told the outlet the sheriff advised her not to — according to the officer, the bullet that killed Charlie had “ravaged” his neck.