By Alex Blair

Copyright news

A longtime friend of Charlie Kirk has shared emotional details of the frantic car ride to the hospital after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was shot.

In an emotional video released on X, Christian author Frank Turek described Kirk as being “literally like a son to me”.

“I have three sons; my fourth son is older than Charlie, but Charlie was my fourth son,” he said. “So when he was hit … if your son got hit, what would you do? If there was any way I could save him, to do something, I would.”

Turek explained how Kirk was loaded into an SUV by his security team after being shot.

He rushed to stay by his side as the car sped off in search of the nearest hospital.

“They got him in the side of the car, an SUV. We took over. I’m on the other side,” he said.

“I run around the back gate and jump in. Apparently somebody fell out of the car. Then I grabbed the thing and closed it, and there’s five of us in the car now.”

Inside the vehicle, Turek said Kirk was “laid out right in front of me” as they sped to the hospital.

“We drove four miles, all the way to the hospital,” he said. “Meanwhile, my son-in-law Dan, Brian, and Rick, they love Charlie, but they’re much calmer. They’re just carrying out calmly, swiftly, exactly what they were trying to do.”

As the men rushed Kirk to medical help, Turek recalled praying aloud: “Come on, let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.” He said at one point they considered performing CPR, but it was clear Kirk was already gone.

“Charlie wasn’t there. His eyes were fixed. He wasn’t looking at me. He was looking past me right into eternity. He was with Jesus already.

“He felt absolutely no pain. That’s what I was told later. But of course we had to try.”

When they arrived at the hospital, doctors managed to restore a faint pulse. “They did get a pulse back, we were praying for a miracle,” Turek said.

“The doctor said, ‘We got a pulse because Charlie was a very healthy man. But the shot was catastrophic.’”

“Twenty or thirty minutes later, the surgeon came out and said he was dead.”

Kirk suspect feared being shot by police

The suspect in the murder of Kirk knew it was “inevitable” he would be caught and was afraid of being shot by police, a sheriff who assisted investigators in his arrest has revealed.

Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder, discharging a firearm, and multiple other charges over the September 10 shooting of the political activist at Utah Valley University.

Speaking to press on Wednesday local time, Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby recalled the moment he received a call from a retired detective who told him he knew the suspect and was working with him to turn himself in voluntarily.

“I couldn’t fathom what actually came out of his mouth,” said Sheriff Brooksby.

He said the retired detective later drove Robinson and his parents to his office, where they were greeted by plainclothed detectives.

“That was part of the deal … Tyler knew it was just inevitable with all the law enforcement pressure … his picture in the news, the gun on, the gun on the news, he knew it was inevitable that he would be caught.”

He said Robinson feared “a SWAT team hit on his house”.

“He was fearful of being shot by law enforcement so part of the negotiation of getting him to bring himself in was that, that we would treat it as delicate and as soft as possible to make him feel comfortable to where he would show up at my office,” said Sheriff Brooksby, who emphasised his team only assisted until investigators arrived.

“It was about a two and a half-hour waiting in a room not communicating with the suspect. Our job was not to interview, our job was just to get him here.”

Robinson made his first appearance at a Utah County courtroom on Tuesday local time.

He appeared virtually wearing a green sleeveless vest, designed to prevent him from taking his life.

“Can you state your name?” the judge asked.

“Tyler James Robinson,” he said.

Robinson sat emotionless in front of a white wall as the charges were read against him. He appeared to nod as the judge told him he would remain in jail without bail.

Robinson’s next hearing is scheduled for September 29.