Crowds gather at vigil for Charlie Kirk in Orem City Center Park

OREM, Utah (ABC4) — In Orem, a vigil was held for Charlie Kirk, the conservative influencer and co-founder of Turning Point USA who was shot and killed at a speaking event at UVU yesterday.

The vigil was held at Orem City Center Park beginning at 7 p.m. Thursday evening. A large crowd gathered to pay their respects to Kirk. In the park’s amphitheater, in front of a large photo of Kirk, the stage was covered with flowers, American flags, and candles.

Hundreds of people attended. One attendee, Orem resident Reed Farnsworth told ABC4, “Shock, here in our community, because we feel that this is such a safe place.”

Orem Mayor David Young was at the vigil and addressed the crowd, offering condolences on behalf of the community to Kirk’s wife and children.

A video of Kirk was played at the vigil, where he talked about how he wanted to be remembered. In the video, he said he wanted to be remembered for his faith.

“I liked that he would be on a campus, and he tended to draw a crowd that supported him, but the people that would often ask the questions were the people who completely disagreed with him,” Farnsworth said. “And so sometimes, the people in the crowd would start booing the person he’s talking to, and he would stop them. He’d say stop, wait a minute, let’s have some respect here, let’s listen to what they have to say. And so he would defend that person’s right to have an opinion, and to share it, and to say it, and I think we need to do more of that.”

Other vigils for Kirk were held Thursday night in St. George and Salt Lake City at the Capitol.

“My hope from all of this would be that people from both sides would say, let’s talk more. Let’s listen more. Let’s not be afraid of other people’s opinions. The more we learn from each other, the better we’ll all be,” Farnsworth said.