In the aftermath of Charlie Kirk's assassination, the New York University College Republicans organized a prayer vigil at Washington Square Park on Sunday night.
"All we wanted was some time to mourn the death of a man who meant so much to so many people," chapter President Ryan Leonard said.
'You're in a very, very dark place, but we'll pray for your salvation.'
Leonard, a senior, told Blaze News that while he'd been part of the College Republicans ever since his start at NYU, he'd been president only since the beginning of the fall semester — and the candlelight vigil would be his first time in charge of a major club event.
It would prove a baptism by fire for the philosophy major.
Leonard told Blaze News that anywhere from 50 to 100 individuals attended the vigil, and it was looking pretty good — highlighted by an impressive display of Kirk-related images under the park's legendary Arch.
Unfortunately, about 20 to 30 protesters showed up, too, Leonard told Blaze News.
While vigil attendees sang the national anthem and attempted to pray, protesters openly mocked Kirk and praised his murder; they even sang a song reflective of an engraving on the assassin's bullet casings. Indeed, it was a continuation of a chilling, unnerving theme that's been played out at other college campuses following Kirk's cold-blooded killing — including at Texas Tech University and Texas State University.
But one protester was particularly aggressive, Leonard told Blaze News, noting that he was "one of the most vulgar and disruptive protesters there."
This guy came with an acoustic guitar and sang some songs with "inappropriate" lyrics, Leonard said, adding that the College Republicans fought back by not giving him attention, even when he was "calling us white supremacists and racists."
Well, that only fueled the protester's fire.
The dark-hearted individual ended up getting a "foot away from our members," Leonard told Blaze News, but still the vigil-goers "did not engage him."
Leonard told Blaze News that at first "I was just very angry when he was disrupting, and then I saw the wrath in his heart, and I became sad for him and the state he was in."
In a brief video the College Republicans recorded, Leonard can be heard telling the protester that "you're in a very, very dark place, but we'll pray for your salvation."
With that, the demented busker launched into an apparently improvised song aimed right back at Leonard. As he strummed angry chords, he loudly sang, "I don't want your salvation! I want you to f**king die! We're not gonna give you a second chance, even when you beg for it, on your knees, begging and pleading!"
Here's the clip, which is used with permission from @nyurepublicans on X. Content warning: Language:
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Leonard told Blaze News that while vigil-goers only returned his hatred with peace, the protester just "got madder and more enraged" and "he started being threatening."
Worse yet, as the protester continued his verbal assaults, Leonard told Blaze News that "more people gathered around him" and a kind of mob was forming. Soon the vigil-goers started getting literally "pushed around," Leonard explained.
Finally, New York police officers "escorted us away," he noted.
Washington Square Park is completely open, so anyone off the street can enter it. Given that kind of access, Blaze News asked Leonard if he was concerned for his safety and that of his fellow club members, given the way Kirk was assassinated out in the open at Utah Valley University just days ago. Leonard told Blaze News that possibility was "definitely going through my mind."
But as the club's president said in a previous statement, he and his fellow College Republicans won't be bullied: "To interrupt a solemn vigil full of grieving young people who were trying to honor the life of an inspiration and mentor they looked up to is pure evil, and we will not let them intimidate us into silence. We will go even harder to honor the life and legacy of Charlie Kirk."
In fact, Leonard added to Blaze News that Sunday night's ordeal has resulted in a "boost in our club that I've never seen before. People are encouraging us, and they appreciate us standing up for them."
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