Speaking to tens of thousands of people at the memorial, Kirk said she had found comfort in prayer and also in the way people had responded to her husband’s death.
Erika Kirk, widow of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, said she forgives her husband’s alleged killer.
« That man, that young man … I forgive him », Kirk said, wiping away tears as the audience at Kirk’s memorial at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., erupted in applause on Sunday.
« I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do », she said. « The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us. »
Last week prosecutors filed murder charges against 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. Officials said Robinson had admitted to shooting Kirk to his roommate, saying in a text message, « I had enough of his hatred. »
Erika Kirk, who is 36 and the mother of two young children, tearfully described the moment she saw her husband’s body at the hospital in Utah, hours after he was shot in the neck while debating college students at Utah Valley University.
« I saw the wound that ended his life … I felt shock, I felt horror and a level of heartache that I didn’t even know existed », Kirk said.
