Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, on Friday delivered her first public remarks since the right-wing activist and close ally of US President Donald Trump was assassinated during an event at Utah Valley University (UVU) on Wednesday, vowing she “won’t let his legacy die”.

Speaking from the office where her husband hosted his podcast, she said he loved America, nature and the Chicago Cubs.

“But most of all, Charlie loved his children, and he loved me with all of his heart,” she said in her tearful address.

She thanked the law enforcement officials “who worked tirelessly to capture my husband’s assassin.” She also sent a message to “the evildoers responsible for my husband’s assassination” without naming Tyler Robinson, who is in custody for killing the 31-year-old activist.

“You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife. The cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry,” Erika, who married Charlie Kirk in 2021 and shares a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son, said.

She also thanked Mr Trump, saying that her husband loved the president, and vowed to keep her husband’s work alive, continuing his campus tour, radio show and podcast.

“You supported him so well, as did he for you,” she told Mr Trump.

She also shared a story about their daughter, when she ran into her arms the night before.

“‘Where’s daddy?'” the daughter asked her.

“What do you tell a three-year-old?” Ms Kirk asked.

“‘Baby, daddy loves you so much. Don’t you worry. He’s on a work trip with Jesus so he can afford your blueberry budget,” she told her daughter.

In a message to her late husband, she said, “I promise I will never let your legacy die”.

She said she will make his movement the “biggest thing this nation has ever seen”.

“In a world filled with chaos, doubt and uncertainty, my husband’s voice will remain,” she said.

Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

Charlie Kirk, who helped Donald Trump build support among young voters during his 2024 presidential campaign, was killed by a single gunshot fired from a rooftop as he spoke onstage during an outdoor campus event attended by 3,000 people.

A bolt-action rifle believed to be the murder weapon was later found nearby.

Mr Trump called the shooting a “heinous assassination.”

The suspect, Tyler Robinson, was taken into custody on Thursday night, about 33 hours after the shooting.

He was caught after a relative and a family friend alerted the local sheriff’s office that he had confessed to them, or “implied that he had committed” the murder, Utah Governor Spencer Cox told reporters at a briefing on Friday.