Erika Kirk Recalls the Heartbreaking Moment She Found Out Husband Charlie Was Shot: 'I Didn't Know What to Say'

Erika Kirk is opening up about the heartbreaking moment she learned her husband, Charlie Kirk, had been shot and killed nearly two months ago.

At the time, Erika was with her mother at a doctor’s appointment while keeping tabs on the Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University — where Charlie was speaking — when she got an unexpected call from Michael McCoy, the group’s chief of staff.

“I’ll never forget,” Erika told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “I’m just being like, ‘Charlie’s been shot. He’s been shot. Get the kids. Get security. Get the kids. Get the kids. He’s been shot.’”

She said she sprinted out of the treatment center, collapsing in the parking lot as she called security. “Unbelievable nightmare,” she recalled.

Michael also remembered the gut-wrenching call.

“It was the first time I’ve ever called her during a Turning Point USA campus tour stop,” he told Jesse Watters Primetime. “I just remember it rang like three or four times. I didn’t know what to say. Those are the words that will change someone’s life forever, and you have to be the one to say it.”

Erika also shared a heartbreaking memory from the night before the tragedy. She said Charlie had left their Arizona home early that morning to head to Utah, but she’d told him to stay in their daughter’s room the night before to get proper rest.

“I said, ‘I want you to have a good night’s sleep. Go ahead and sleep in her room, and I’ll turn the air down so it’s nice and cozy in there … I just want you to get a good night’s sleep so you can be amazing tomorrow,’” she recalled.

She continued, “And so Gigi and I stayed in our room, and that morning he woke up super early, and he came into our bedroom, into the bathroom, because that’s where his wedding ring was and his necklace, and he came in and he grabbed that and then he left. I didn’t get to give him a kiss.”

After the shooting, Erika said she was told by doctors and a police officer to wait until Charlie’s body was taken to the mortuary before seeing him — but she refused.

“I said, ‘With all due respect, sir, I want to see what they did to my husband, and I want to give him a kiss, because I didn’t get to give him a kiss this morning,’” she said.

As OK! previously reported, Charlie was shot in the neck on September 10 while speaking at Utah Valley University for his youth organization, Turning Point USA.

Eyewitness Justin Hickens told NBC News, “We heard a big loud shot, I saw a bunch of blood come out of Charlie, I saw his body kind of kick back and go limp, and everybody dropped to the ground.”

The shocking video of the incident quickly spread across social media, but Erika said she refuses to watch it.

“I never saw the video. I never will see it. I never want to see it,” she shared. “There’s certain things you see in your life that you can never unsee. There’s certain things you see in your life that mark your soul forever. I don’t want my husband’s public assassination to be something I ever see.”