Charlie Kirk Statue Defaced With Red Paint Three Days After Unveiling at TPUSA Headquarters

An eight-foot bronze statue of Charlie Kirk, unveiled Thursday at Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix to mark one year since his killing, was found Sunday morning smeared with red paint.

Phoenix police said calls came in about 8:09 a.m. reporting vandalism at the memorial outside 4900 East Beverly Road. Officers responded. No arrests and no public suspect description had been released by Sunday afternoon. The department asked anyone with information to call police or Silent Witness at 480-WITNESS.

Tyler Bowyer, chief operating officer of Turning Point Action, posted photographs from the scene. “This morning we woke up to radical criminals vandalizing our headquarters. Crossing over Charlie’s face, scratching out Jesus and the Cross & spraying red paint on his neck,” he wrote. “This isn’t the country we want to live in. Arizona is not Gotham.”

The paint covered Kirk’s face and the neck — the wound that killed him at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, 2025. A crude frown was drawn on the chest of the “FREEDOM” shirt. A nearby sign was defaced. Turning Point said the vandals made an “intentional decision” to cross out the name of Jesus. Fox News reported the sign had read, “Jesus defeated death so you can live.” Other posts from the organization described “Jesus” struck through and “Satan” written over a Christian tribute, including the line asking that Kirk be received “into the merciful arms of Jesus, our loving Savior.”

The statue is the work of Utah sculptor Quintin McCann, who started a portrait of Kirk the night he was shot. It shows Kirk in the freedom shirt and a cross necklace, wedding ring included, tossing caps to a crowd. It went up Thursday, the anniversary date. Turning Point said it had planned to move the piece indoors later in the week for security.

“We will restore the statue and replace the signs, but we are also reviewing the footage of the incident and are working with law enforcement to identify who did this and hold them accountable,” the organization said. Spokesman Andrew Kolvet said the crew finished the cleanup Sunday. “The team rallied and got the statue back looking good as new. Evil may never sleep, but neither do we. We won’t stop. We will win. They will lose.”

Erika Kirk, who now leads the organization her husband co-founded, said Charlie’s habit was to build two statues for every one torn down. She wrote that the bullet “only made it louder” and that “God will not be mocked.”

Tyler Robinson, the man charged in Kirk’s killing, has pleaded not guilty to aggravated murder and faces a possible death sentence if convicted. A Utah judge recently ordered him to stand trial.

Bowyer tied the defacement to a wider fight in Arizona, criticizing Gov. Katie Hobbs for vetoing a bill to name a stretch of Loop 202 for Kirk. Reps. Abe Hamadeh and Andy Biggs condemned the vandalism. Turning Point closed its post with John 15:18: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”