Charlie Kirk memorial: Cars line up from 4am at Arizona stadium, large turnout expected
Charlie Kirk memorial: President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other prominent MAGA allies will pay tribute to the slain conservative activist.
A large line of cars was outside the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on Sunday morning ahead of Charlie Kirk’s memorial service.
According to CNN, the cars lined up from as early as 4.20am MT (local time) and streched for blocks.
The memorial will be open on a “first-come, first-served” basis, and the local police have estimated that it could draw more than 1,00,000 attendees.
President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other prominent MAGA allies will pay tribute to the slain conservative activist.
“We're going to celebrate the life of a great man today,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House for Arizona for the service. “It will be a tough day.”
Organisers said they expect the stadium, which has a capacity of more than 73,000, to fill and that they have arranged for an overflow space at a nearby arena, according to Reuters.
Security measures will be extremely tight, given President Trump’s attendance and the ongoing political turmoil following Kirk’s death.
A senior Department of Homeland Security official told Reuters the service had been given the agency's highest level security rating, reserved for "events of the highest national significance" such as the Super Bowl.
Kirk, 31, was assassinated on September 10 during a Q&A session on the Utah Valley University (UVU) campus in Orem, Utah. He was being asked questions about mass shootings in America when he was shot in the neck.
The suspect, later identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was captured on camera wearing a black T-shirt emblazoned with an eagle and American flag, sunglasses, and a baseball cap after a massive manhunt.
He has been charged with murder, and investigators say he told his romantic partner in text messages that he had killed Kirk because he had “enough of his hate.”
Kirk's killing has set off a fierce debate about violence, decency and free speech in an era of deep political division in the United States.
The shooting also has stirred fear among some Americans that Trump is trying to harness outrage over the killing as justification to suppress the voices of his critics and political opponents.
