Christian apologist and author Frank Turek was just feet away when Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University. In a new podcast episode, he recounted the Sept. 10 shooting and the frantic rush to the hospital where doctors pronounced the 31-year-old dead.

Kirk first reached out to Turek years ago for mentorship in Christian apologetics, Turek said in the podcast, “The Greatness of Charlie Kirk: An Eyewitness Account of His Life and Martyrdom.”

Their relationship blossomed, with Turek saying he came to consider Kirk a son.

On the morning of the event, Turek joined Kirk’s team on the car ride to Utah Valley University, discussing potential student questions and fine-tuning answers. 

The Turning Point USA team immediately contacted Kirk’s wife, Erika, and sent a plane to get her, Turek said. They also called Vice President JD Vance.

When Erika arrived at the hospital, Turek said she vowed to continue his legacy, even taking a moment to reassure him amid her own anguish.

“She said, ‘He loved you, and he was doing what he wanted to do,’” Turek said. “Then we just held one another, and she expressed that she wanted to keep Charlie’s legacy going. … That woman is not going to be denied. If this assassin thought that he was going to end Charlie’s legacy, he just poured gasoline on it, and Erika is going to lead the charge.”

The group did not have access to the SUV they traveled in or their personal items due to an initial police investigation. However, once the vehicle was cleared, Turek said Erika asked for her husband’s cross necklace, which went missing during the rush. 

Turek found the cross draped over his own computer bag, which Kirk was lying on as the team drove him to the hospital.

Erika later held up the necklace in a heartbreaking photo captured as she escorted his body to a chapel in Arizona.

With supporters gathered along the route, Erika Kirk waves as a motorcade brings the body of her husband, Charlie Kirk, to Hansen Mortuary Chapel in Phoenix Sept. 11, 2025. (Diannie Chavez/The Republic/USA Today Network via Imagn Images)

Throughout the podcast episode, Turek described Kirk as a fearless, relentlessly Christ-centered leader.

He highlighted Kirk’s humility, discipline and devotion to family, pushing back on critics who he said “twisted” some of Kirk’s more controversial remarks.

Turek added, in one of his final texts the day before he was killed, Kirk sent him the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 16:9: “A wide door for effective work has opened up to me, and there are many adversaries.”