Over 20 5C students gathered in memory of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk at Claremont McKenna College on Thursday night. Kirk was fatally shot in the neck while on stage at Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Sept. 10.
At 8 p.m., students gathered at the Veteran’s Fountain in Kravis Lower Court and candles were passed out. Around 10 minutes later, speeches began in honor of Kirk and his legacy.
“He was one of the most incredible, most fearless people in this generation,” Grace Rutherford PO ’28 said at the event. “It’s what finally inspired me to wear my truth on my sleeve.”
Students spoke about Kirk’s impact and what he represented to them.
After the speeches, there was a minute of silence, followed by a few students singing the national anthem.
A member of the Claremont Colleges Campus Safety (CCCS) department was also present at the event. Organizers said this was due in part to its “conservative” nature.
During the vigil, there were multiple altercations between an organizer and an attendee. The organizer had asked a rhetorical question about whether anyone deserved violent retribution for their political voice and actions, to which the attendee responded sarcastically, according to an anonymous source who attended the event.
The source said the organizer then asked the CCCS officer present at the event to escort the attendee off the premises.
“They used campus security to effectively stop people from disparaging Kirk or providing alternative insights,” the source said. “Campus security was effectively running interference on what people were allowed to say [at] the organizers’ whims.”
After that incident, the organizer continued to goad on the attendee, leading to multiple altercations with yelling, according to an eyewitness account from a TSL reporter.
A reporter from Pitzer College’s Outback Newsprint Magazine was also present, but was escorted out of the event during the vigil.
A handful of bystanders watched the event from above at ground level, heckling at times.
According to eyewitness accounts from TSL reporters, some of the bystanders got into an altercation with event organizers after its conclusion. The bystanders claimed that the organizers had been filming them, sparking the altercation.
The vigil was organized by Turning Point USA (TPUSA) at CMC — a chapter of the conservative nonprofit founded by Kirk — and the Claremont Colleges College Republicans. Both organizations declined to provide comment on this story.
TPUSA leadership said the organization barred its members from speaking to the media. According to accounts from a TSL reporter, the organizer threatened that any violation of the media policy could result in the reporter being sued “personally.”
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