‘He’s like a son to me’

GLENDALE, Arizona — Many of the hundreds of thousands of people who showed up for Charlie Kirk’s remembrance service said they felt a deep personal connection to the conservative icon, lauding him as a thoughtful and approachable speaker of truth.

“He’s like a son to me. We are connected through the blood of Jesus Christ,” said Greg Waters, 71, a civil engineer who made the trek to Glendale from Bishop, Calif. to attend the service.

“The problem is the world has is it doesn’t understand the spiritual connection,” he said, calling Kirk’s murder, allegedly at the hands of a leftist-indoctrinated gunman, “very sad.”

As for his impact on the conservative movement as a whole, Waters said he “absolutely lit it on fire,” and that being struck down as he was while attempting to change the minds of those who disagreed with him was “what martyrs do.”

Kirk was shot by a sniper Sept. 10 as he spoke to a university crowd in Utah, kicking off the start of his The American Comeback Tour.

Some 200,000 mourners of all ages flocked to the service, many of whom were turned away as the 73,000-capacity State Farm Stadium reached capacity within a couple of hours of the doors opening.

“I think the more people who turned out shows that he had more impact than people believed. They need to have a bigger stadium,” Waters said of the massive audience.

Some attendees had only recently become fans of Kirk, while others said they’d been there from his earliest days.

“I’ve listened to him from the beginning of Turning Point and it’s been an amazing journey to watch him grow,” said Thomas Hanson, 57, or Cerritos, Calif., who pulled an all-nighter to arrive at the stadium at 1 a.m. Sunday — seven hours before doors opened.

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Follow live updates from Charlie Kirk’s funeral Sunday in Arizona

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“He loves the faith and speaks the truth,” Hanson said of Kirk’s devout Christian faith and commitment to passionate yet respectful debate.

“It’s become stronger and prevalent and it’s like the Holy Spirit was talking through him. It was an amazing thing. It’s sad to see what happened but it’s an amazing thing that is going to happen now to see everyone become Charlie Kirk,” he said.

“I love him. I love how he had such a deep impact and he speaks the truth … and has open debates,” added his wife, Theresa Hanson. 

“He doesn’t run away from controversy.”

Nicole Franco, 41, a lab technician from Kyle, Texas, made a 15-hour drive with her two daughters to attend the ceremony, only to be redirected to watch the event on the Jumbotron outside the Desert Diamond Arena, which had also filled to its 19,000-seat capacity.

“That was a bummer,” she said, noting that her boss had given her the green-light to take the impromptu road trip, despite her being a relative newcomer to following Kirk.

“I just let my boss know I’m in Arizona and I might not be there tomorrow. He said it’s totally fine,” she said.

“Honestly I didn’t know who he was at first. My husband came through the door the day he was assassinated and he said ‘oh my God, Charlie Kirk was assassinated.’ I said ‘who?’”

But she said she became an instant fan, and that she “started watching more and more of his videos” after his shocking killing, and that she deeply relates to his beliefs and morals.

“He’s anti government and doesn’t want the government in everything and I’m for that. The whole abortion thing, I’m pro-life.”