Students Hold Vigil for Charlie Kirk Despite Disruption and Online Harassment

Display at the vigil. Photo courtesy of Shiv Parihar.

Approximately two dozen students gathered last week at Claremont McKenna College in memoriam of Charlie Kirk, founder of the MAGA-aligned organization Turning Point USA and leading figure for conservative college students across America. Vigil attendees were met with intermittent heckling, small-scale disruption, and digital harassment.

Candles were passed out at the vigil, which began at 8 p.m. on Sept. 11 in Kravis Lower Court and was organized by the Claremont College Republicans and CMC’s chapter of Turning Point USA. There were multiple Campus Safety officers present to provide security for the event. Several students gave speeches eulogizing Kirk and calling for peaceful political discourse. Attendees also shared a moment of silence and sang the national anthem.

“The people at the vigil were united not over political discourse or loyalty to specific teams, but by their opposition to violence. They were united in their belief that political violence is never okay, regardless of what side the victim is on,” an attendee of the vigil told the Independent.

Kirk was a standard-bearer for the MAGA movement and had groundbreaking success in organizing young conservatives. He was killed Sept. 10 while speaking to students at Utah Valley University. The 31-year-old was set to come speak at the Claremont Colleges this spring.

During the vigil, a group of students gathered on Kravis Upper Court above the event, sporadically heckling participants and taking photos, which were later circulated online and used to identify attendees. Posts made on Fizz, an anonymous social media platform, castigated students for attending and called the vigil a “KKK meeting,” a remark that received several hundred upvotes – equivalent to likes – from Claremont Colleges students.

In the middle of a student speech that asked a rhetorical question about political violence, a student in the crowd interrupted, interjecting that Kirk was killed by “Mossad,” the Israeli intelligence agency. The outburst prompted an argument between the disruptor and an organizer of the event, but the interrupted speech was able to proceeded.

Later in the evening, a confrontation occurred between an organizer of the event and the disruptive individual regarding their previously made comment. This verbal altercation escalated and a Campus Safety officer intervened before the disruptive student left voluntarily.

After the event, a group of attendees was reportedly followed across campus and into town by a handful of masked students.

Upcoming speaker events hosted by the College Republicans and Turning Point CMC are expected to have robust security details.

Kirk’s memorial is scheduled for Sept. 21, at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Formal charges are expected to be filed on Tuesday against Tyler Robinson, the suspected shooter.

Representatives for Claremont McKenna College did not provide a comment by publication deadline.

Editor's note: This article was momentarily changed from its original version after we received a request to verify an aspect of its reporting. We have confirmed with multiple sources that the circumstance in question did occur as initially reported, and the article has now been restored to the original.