The last person to speak to Charlie Kirk before his assassination was a liberal TikToker with a small audience who disagreed with Mr. Kirk on just about everything — except for their shared belief in free speech and raw political debate.
“I wanted to challenge him,” the TikToker, Hunter Kozak, 29, said in an interview at his home in Utah on Thursday. “He went with arms open to say, ‘Challenge me, please.’ ”
It was in that spirit that Mr. Kozak decided to attend Mr. Kirk’s rally at Utah Valley University in Orem, where he is studying math education.
Mr. Kozak said he arrived about 90 minutes early to join the line of attendees hoping to speak with Mr. Kirk, and was ushered toward the front of the line after he previewed his question to the event’s organizers.
He asked Mr. Kirk about mass shootings involving transgender people, and the two went back and forth for a moment before the shot rang out, killing Mr. Kirk. Mr. Kozak, standing a few feet away, at first thought the gunshot was a firecracker. Then he realized Mr. Kirk had been hit.
“I saw blood spurt,” he said. “I dropped to the floor.”
Mr. Kozak and his wife are unabashed liberals in a conservative corner of a deeply Republican state. Their living room is decorated with flags for Black Lives Matter, Ukraine, L.G.B.T.Q. rights, with a Star-Spangled Banner hanging among them.
The couple grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and met at Brigham Young University, but they said they were no longer active in the faith.
Since the shooting, Mr. Kozak has grown increasingly concerned about his family’s safety in the welter of anger and uncertainty that followed the shooting. With the gunman still on the loose, he and his wife worry that unstable people might blame him for Mr. Kirk’s killing and track down where he lives. He posted his story on Thursday to his social media channels and his 34,000 followers on TikTok.
He said he had also been considering the parallels between himself and Mr. Kirk — they were roughly the same age, each have two young children, and each were passionate in their political beliefs and unapologetic about expressing them.
“As much as I disagree with Charlie, I appreciate that’s what he centered his campaign on — freedom of speech,” Mr. Kozak said.
Mr. Kozak said he was horrified by Mr. Kirk’s killing, as well as the scattered voices on the left who reveled in his death.
“I disagree vehemently with thousands of things that Charlie Kirk has said,” he said. “He is also a human being.”
“That’s a dad,” he continued. “The fact that a son is growing up without a father — that is inexcusable.”
The “dad” part is particularly personal. Mr. Kozak’s wife gave birth to their second child on Sunday, and the couple said they had spent the days before Mr. Kirk’s rally practically living with their newborn daughter at the hospital neonatal intensive care unit.
They decided to attend Mr. Kirk’s event because they believed it was important to hear him, document what he said and articulate their own views.
Since the shooting, Mr. Kozak has been agonizing over his decision to ask Mr. Kirk about mass shootings — a grim coincidence that has fed into online conspiracies and speculation. He had debated asking about Jeffrey Epstein or Mr. Kirk’s own definition of gender before ultimately querying Mr. Kirk on transgender people’s role in committing mass violence.
“I couldn’t have asked a worse question,” he said.
Mr. Kirk’s event at Utah Valley University was the start of a tour of college campuses across the country. While Mr. Kirk’s crowds were largely made of up his fans, his events were often designed around his desire to debate people with whom he held political disagreements.
Mr. Kozak has made small contributions to Senator Bernie Sanders, independent of Vermont, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Mr. Kozak’s social media channels indicate he had attended some of Mr. Kirk’s other gatherings in the past, conducting satirical interviews with supporters of Mr. Kirk and President Trump.
In a series of recent TikTok videos, including one that received over a million views, Mr. Kozak challenged false assertions made by Mr. Kirk and others on the right that transgender people are more likely to become mass shooters.
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Jack Healy is a Phoenix-based national correspondent for The Times who focuses on the politics and climate of the Southwest. He has worked in Iraq and Afghanistan and is a graduate of the University of Missouri’s journalism school.
Reid J. Epstein covers campaigns and elections from Washington. Before joining The Times in 2019, he worked at The Wall Street Journal, Politico, Newsday and The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
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