In a raw and emotional interview, Frank Turek, a close friend and colleague of Charlie Kirk, has shared a harrowing, minute-by-minute account of the tragic day that saw the conservative commentator’s life cut short by an assassin’s bullet. Turek, who was just feet away when the fatal shot rang out, provided a powerful and deeply personal testimony of the chaos, the desperate race to save a friend’s life, and the devastating final moments in the hospital.

Speaking with Megyn Kelly, Turek’s voice was thick with emotion as he recounted the events of that dark day. He described standing just 25 feet from Kirk’s left elbow when the shot was fired. His immediate instinct, he said, was to go to his friend, but Kirk’s security detail was already there, springing into action. “I took two steps toward Charlie,” Turek recalled, “and then the security team was there… so I ducked, thinking, ‘Okay, there’s going to be more shots.’”

What followed was a scene of controlled chaos as Turek and the security team scrambled to get Kirk to safety. “They got him on the right side of the car, they opened the back door and kind of dragged him in,” Turek said. “I couldn’t get in either door, so I popped the gate open and got in the back and climbed over the seat.”

The frantic drive to the hospital, Turek described, was a blur of blaring horns and swerving traffic. “It’s not an emergency vehicle, there’s no sirens, there’s no lights,” he said. “We’re just beeping the horn… trying to get to this hospital that’s like a little over four miles away.” Inside the vehicle, the scene was one of desperate urgency. With Kirk’s tall frame—he stood at 6’4″—they couldn’t even close the car door. “Just go, go, let’s go,” Turek remembers them yelling.

As they sped towards the hospital, the gravity of the situation began to set in. Turek looked down at his friend, whose face was just a foot from his own. “His eyes were fixed, Megan,” he told Kelly, his voice breaking. “He’s not looking at me. He’s looking into eternity. He was already with Jesus. Absent from the body, present with the Lord, says the New Testament.”

Despite the grim reality before them, they refused to give up hope. Turek began CPR, pounding on his friend’s chest, trying to elicit a response. They prayed aloud, begging for a miracle. “Come on, Lord, save him. Come on, give us a sliver of hope here,” Turek recalled them pleading.

Their prayers seemed to be answered, for a moment, when they arrived at the hospital and the doctors managed to find a pulse. “We’re all praying out loud,” Turek said. “We’re like, ‘Come on, Lord, save him.’” But the hope was short-lived. The head surgeon emerged from the operating room about a half-hour later with the devastating news: “He’s dead.”

The doctor’s words were a crushing blow, but they also offered a small measure of comfort. The shot, the doctor explained, was “catastrophic.” Kirk had died instantly, and had not experienced any pain. “The only comfort is that he didn’t… experience any… pain,” Turek said, his voice trailing off.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, Turek praised the remarkable strength and composure of Mikey McCoy, a 23-year-old member of Kirk’s team who stepped up to take charge of the chaotic situation. “He’s calling the vice president, he’s calling Erica [Kirk’s wife], he’s sending a plane to get Erica,” Turek said. “He’s asking the doctor real hard questions… he said, ‘Charlie would want me to do this.’ And he just took over. I couldn’t be more proud of that man.”

Turek also spoke of the profound grief and guilt tormenting Kirk’s security team. “I just kept going, hugging them, saying, ‘This is not your fault,’” he said. “I’m telling you, Megan, any one of those guys would have taken a bullet for Charlie. They loved him… they would have died for Charlie, like Jesus died for us.”

For Turek, the loss is deeply personal. He described Kirk as being “like a son to me,” which is why he felt compelled to be in the car with him during that frantic rush to the hospital. “You imagine… your… god forbid, one of your children gets shot,” he said. “You’re not going to stay behind and, you know, ‘I’ll see you at the hospital.’ No, I had to be in that car.”

The interview also revealed a chilling detail: Turek had been on FaceTime with his son and daughter-in-law at the time of the shooting. “When the shot rang out… I just put the phone in my back pocket,” he said. “I didn’t even… I didn’t turn it off… By the time I got to the hotel, I pulled it out, they were still there. So they heard the whole thing.”

Turek’s harrowing account has not only shed new light on the tragic events of that day but has also raised serious questions about the security failures that may have contributed to Kirk’s death. Turek expressed his frustration and disbelief that the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the venue were not secured, drawing a parallel to a previous security lapse. “There does need to be a real investigation as to why… they weren’t patrolling that roof,” he said.

As the nation mourns the loss of a prominent voice, Frank Turek’s emotional testimony serves as a powerful reminder of the human cost of political violence. His words paint a vivid picture of a day of unimaginable horror, of friendship and loss, and of the enduring strength of the human spirit in the face of tragedy. His account is a tribute to his friend, Charlie Kirk, a man he loved like a son, and a call for answers that may help prevent such a tragedy from ever happening again.