Frank Turek, a Christian author, speaker and a personal friend of the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, shared an emotional story during his podcast this week, revealing that he was present at the Utah Valley University event on Sept. 10 when Kirk was assassinated.
Turek, 63, explained the moments leading up to the shooting, sharing their discussion in the car, and the enthusiasm of the huge crowd as they arrived, when he and Charlie were tossing out hats to the audience.
He referred to the wild conspiracies being floated around about a man in a white hat who some people claimed was “giving hand signals to the shooter.”
“That man was ME,” he said, noting that he was definitely not giving hand signals to anyone. He said he first showed his wife the crowd through Face-Time, and then got on the phone with his son and daughter-in-law, who are huge Charlie Kirk fans.
Turek explained the horrific moment when he first heard the shot, and saw Charlie fall, and then ran with his team as they carried Charlie to the car. All the time, his son and daughter-in-law were hearing it all as his phone was still on.
Turek revealed the frantic moments after the shooting as he and other members of Kirk’s security team rushed to get Charlie into a vehicle and made the harrowing four-mile drive through traffic to the hospital, in a desperate effort to save his life.
“Charlie Kirk was literally a son to me,” Turek explained, fighting back tears. “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.”
Turek jumped into the vehicle through the back hatch door, then nearly fell out when the vehicle lurched forward. He managed to reach up and close the back hatch door, then tried to help Charlie.
He said they were unable to close one of the doors during the ride because Charlie is so tall, so they raced through traffic with the door open.
At one point, they saw an ambulance coming toward them, but decided they couldn’t waste precious time stopping to get Charlie into an ambulance.
During the ride, the team was praying, trying to stop the bleeding, and performing CPR.
Breaking down, Turek said, “Charlie wasn’t there. His eyes were fixed. He wasn’t looking at me, he was looking past me, right into eternity. He was with Jesus already. He was killed instantly, and felt no pain, but we felt like we had to try.”
“If that’s any comfort at all, Charlie didn’t suffer. He was already with Jesus,” he added. “Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”
Turek said at the hospital, the doctors did manage to get a pulse back for a few minutes, but “the shot was catastrophic” and he couldn’t be saved.
Turek said at the hospital, they all needed to change clothes, so the hospital gave them scrubs to wear and brought them food.
He shared additional details about Kirk’s team, their heroic efforts to help Charlie, then to notify his wife, President Trump, and VP JD Vance.
WATCH Turek’s full story in the video below:
In an eerie prophecy earlier this year, Charlie had warned that he feared someone would get shot and killed, and said he received death threats every day.
Charlie Kirk warned earlier this year that his greatest fear was someone getting shot and killed.
He said the left was creating an atmosphere that could lead to “one of us getting shot or killed.”
He also revealed he was receiving death threats every single day. pic.twitter.com/QIfmy7cJ2z
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) September 18, 2025
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