Late Saturday afternoon, roughly 1,000 demonstrators gathered for a memorial in honor of slain conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk. 

The event took place three days after Kirk was assassinated at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

Attendees ranged in ages from infants to seniors. The demonstrators started with a prayer at Alton Baker Park, followed by a march to Hayward Field.

Upon arriving at the university, demonstrators lifted a massive American flag across the intersection of 15th and Agate Street.

The memorial continued with demonstrators waving American flags in the air and posters of Kirk. 

Local law enforcement were on the scene but did not engage with the demonstration. Law enforcement temporarily blocked off Agate Street to oncoming traffic, but it was lifted near the end of the demonstration. 

Vince Burroughs, Chris Tough and Billy Ferrell, a group of friends from Oregon, organized the memorial. 

“Everything that has occurred here is all done under Charlie Kirk and the founding and the following he has made,” Ferrell said. “There is no affiliation or anything. We are just followers of Charlie Kirk, following with what he has created.” 

Tough said his friends came together in honor of Kirk on behalf of those in Lane County who were “afraid” to do so.

“We’re all grieving. We’re all feeling this loss so heavy and everybody wanted to come together – everybody is coming together around the nation,” Tough said. “So we (Burroughs, Tough, and Ferrell) wanted to bring people in Lane County together. People were afraid to, so we thought ‘we’re going to put our friends together. We’re not afraid, we’re going to come together and do a candle light vigil’ and it snowballed into this.” 

Burroughs said he felt anger at first when he found out about Kirk’s assassination . 

“He was a Christian man and we knew that he is in a lot better place,” Burroughs said. “We take his words that he tells us ‘you can’t fight with anger. We got to love,’ and that kind of calmed us down and gave us a clear head… and came up with this event.” 

Tough said they ended the demonstration in front of Hayward Field because of its size and that Kirk was a “huge Oregon Ducks fan.”

“We wanted to give the students here an opportunity… to be a part of it (the memorial), and I think that would’ve been very important to Charlie Kirk,” Tough said. 

In 2018, Kirk visited the University of Oregon campus as part of his conservative group, Turning Point USA. 

Cassidy Alayan, the president of Turning Point’s UO chapter, told KVAL 13 that her chapter had been quietly preparing to bring Kirk to campus in October. Kirk reportedly would have participated in a “Prove Me Wrong” live debate event similar to the one Kirk was in the middle of when he was shot on Wednesday, according to KVAL 13. 

Eathen Degristina, a demonstrator who brought his infant son, said he came out to the memorial because he wanted to honor the “freedom to express your opinion.”

“I didn’t necessarily agree with a lot of things he (Kirk) said, but I did agree with some of it,” Degristina said. “But nobody deserves to lose their life over an opinion.” 

Degristina said one of the reasons he brought his child was because “he is the next generation and a lot of this does affect him.” 

“It bothers me and scares me for the future of my son,” Degristina said. “If we can’t even go online and post our opinion about something without the risk of violence or protests, it’s worrying.” 

Stephanie Ellis said she brought her toddler to the memorial because she wanted him to “know what it’s like to be a hero.” 

“His (Kirk’s) message was always about God and truth,” Justin Duncan, Ellis’ husband said.

Ellis added, “And I’m raising my son to know the truth.”

Additional memorials for Kirk were held today across the state.