President Donald Trump led thousands of his supporters at a mass memorial event Sunday for slain right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, with language highlighting religious fervor.
"He's a martyr now for American freedom," Trump said of Kirk, who was killed on Sept. 10 at a Utah university campus.
Trump was the final speaker to address nearly 65,000 people at the event, held at a stadium in the southwestern U.S. state of Arizona, with people coming from far and wide to pay their respects.
"I look at him as a Christ martyr, definitely," said Monica Mirelez, a 44-year-old nurse who drove more than 12 hours from Texas to attend Kirk's memorial.
Mirelez told AFP she watched Kirk's videos on Instagram every day.
"He was a perfect example of what we should be doing as Christians. We should be bold and speak up," she said.
"It's so sad that he was silenced like this," Mirelez continued, adding that "it feels like losing a brother."
The crowd at Kirk's memorial was decked out in red, white, and blue, greeting Trump and other speakers with chants of "USA! USA! USA!"
In keeping with the religious tone of the event, Christian rock songs were performed between speeches, with many in the crowd singing along.
Mirelez said she supported Kirk as a fellow Christian, finding that "his political views were basically backed up by the Bible."
"He stood up for biblical principles, against the LGBTQ community ... That brought him a lot of hate from a lot of people, but I think he was misunderstood," she said.
Another attendee, 15-year-old high school student Nick Chisholm, said he was shocked by the reaction of some of his classmates to Kirk's death, saying "they laughed, they said he deserved it."
"Whatever he said, he didn't deserve to be killed for speaking his opinion and his beliefs," Chisholm told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Speakers and attendees also expressed a sense of solidarity in the wake of Kirk's killing.
"You have no idea the dragon you have awakened," top Trump advisor Stephen Miller told the audience. "You have no idea how determined we will be to save this civilization, to save the West."
Welsley Inglis, a 61-year-old mechanical engineer from California, told AFP he believes the shooter was influenced primarily by the rival Democratic party.
"They're the ones that have really pushed blending the genders, no male, no female, transgender, get rid of that dichotomy," he said.
He added that he appreciated how Kirk was "was bringing the youth back to the church and changing their minds."
"When I was a child, the churches were filled. By the time I became an adult, churches were empty," Inglis said.
He said threats made by the Trump administration to crack down on left-wing activists accused of funding political violence were a hint of what was to come.
"We can't just crack down on dissent, there would have to be proof, it has to be done by the books ... But personally, I think they have proof, it just hasn't been released yet," Inglis said.
Another Trump supporter, Jeremy Schlotman, preferred a more cautious approach.
The 21-year-old practicing Catholic, who recently joined Kirk's organization Turning Point USA, said he forgave the alleged killer – a sentiment also expressed by Kirk's widow Erika during her speech Sunday.
"I think that's the best response to what the shooter did," Schlotman said.
"Kill one, and a thousand more will rise. That's what's happening, the shooter just created a generation of new Charlies. We're all Charlie Kirk now."
