Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika, has given a tearful address in which she thanked first responders for trying to save her husband’s life after he was fatally shot on a Utah university campus.

In a livestream, standing beside her husband’s empty chair that he used during podcast tapings, she quoted the Bible and spoke about his love for President Donald Trump, Vice-President JD Vance, the United States, and the couple’s two children.

Kirk, a right-wing activist, was shot dead on Wednesday during an open-air speaking event in Orem, Utah. His suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, was arrested on Thursday night after surrendering to police.

In her remarks, Mrs Kirk pledged: “My husband’s voice will remain”.

The broadcast from Turning Point USA’s headquarters in Arizona began with several minutes of silence, as the camera framed Charlie Kirk’s empty chair.

As his widow started speaking, she looked upwards and whispered a silent prayer.

She then thanked first responders who tried to save him, her husband’s staff, and the White House.

“Mr President, my husband loved you. And he knew that you loved him too,” she said tearfully, also thanking Vance and his wife Usha for accompanying the casket back to Arizona.

“But most of all, Charlie loved his children. And he loved me. With all his heart. And he made sure I knew that everyday.”

Addressing “evildoers,” Mrs Kirk said: “You have no idea the fire that you have ignited within this wife, the cries of this widow will echo around the world like a battle cry.

“They should all know this: If you thought that my husband’s mission was powerful before you have no idea, you have no idea what you just have unleashed across this entire country and this world.”

Her husband’s tour of US university campuses will continue throughout the fall, and in the years ahead, she said, without offering further details. His podcast will also continue.

Erika Kirk also spoke of their one-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, saying that she was at a loss for how to explain their father’s sudden death.

“Baby, daddy loves you so much. Don’t you worry. He’s on a work trip with Jesus,” she told their daughter.

Mrs Kirk, 36, and their children were reportedly in the audience when her husband was shot.

Erika Kirk is a businesswoman and former Miss Arizona USA winner who met her husband in 2018. The couple were engaged by 2020 and wed less than a year later.

She is currently studying for a doctorate in Bible Studies, has launched a ministry programme and hosts the Midweek Rise Up podcast focused on Biblical leadership. Mrs Kirk also acts and models, and has a faith-based clothing line.

Although the children and the couple’s home life are regular fixtures on her social media pages, they never publish images showing their children’s faces.

Kirk, a polarising figure in American political discourse, has been hailed by many as the future of American conservatism with a knack for energising Generation Z conservatives. He and his well-attended debates often espoused evangelical Christian values.

By mobilising the conservative youth vote, Kirk was an instrumental organiser in Trump’s Maga coalition and helped return him to the White House for a second term.

The wunderkind influencer was speaking at Utah Valley University during Turning Point USA’s The American Comeback Tour, a speaking engagement that took him to several college campuses throughout the states.

He was shot during his viral Prove Me Wrong debate while taking a question about gun violence in the US.

Trump on Thursday morning announced that he would award Kirk a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom – the highest civilian honour a president can award – describing his friend and ally as a “giant of his generation and a champion of liberty”.

Later Thursday, he said that he spoke with Mrs Kirk: “She is absolutely devastated.”

Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk began when he was 18 years old, also referred to its co-founder as a “martyr” and “pioneer”.

“Charlie was the ideal husband and the perfect father. Above all else, we ask you to pray for the Kirks after the incomprehensible loss they have suffered,” the organization said in a statement to BBC News on Thursday (11 Sept).

Vice-President JD Vance flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, on Thursday to retrieve Kirk’s casket and transport it to Phoenix, Arizona – where Kirk’s family lives – on the vice-presidential aircraft, Air Force Two.

Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance travelled with Kirk’s family and some of his friends to Arizona.

Kirk’s body was transferred from the hospital to the medical examiner’s office on Wednesday night, authorities said earlier.