Defiant TPUSA leader won't quit despite chapter facing harassment, hostility after Kirk assassination
PHOENIX — After a string of harassment, intimidation and destruction in the wake of the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a leader at one of the organization's college chapters refuses to back down.
Amy Rose Lombardo is the event coordinator for TPUSA's Northern Arizona University chapter. She told Fox News Digital at AmericaFest, Turning Point's annual conference, that she and her fellow group members have faced an onslaught of incivility since Kirk's midday murder during a speaking event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10.
"So we have seen a few more dramatic protesting strategies," Lombardo said. "For example, really the first one that we ever got was a woman came by the table and dropped off a note that was a depiction of Charlie's murder and the comments on it free speech and only a good Nazi is a dead Nazi."
That note also depicted blood coming out of the neck of a person holding a microphone.
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In a second incident, a woman was caught on camera swiping the contents off of the chapter's table during a tabling event, and then stealing a foam board depicting Ronald Reagan.
"With the table swiper, to be honest with you, that person just came out of nowhere. She was walking back from a direction that normally we wouldn't see people, but she went and got food at some sort of area on the opposite side of where we were tabling, came around, and you'll hear in the video my sister says, 'hey, how's it going?'" Lombardo recalled.
"And she smiles at us and swipes the table, and leaves," Lombardo continued.
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Lombardo said the group contacted the Northern Arizona University Police Department, which prosecuted the offender. Court records indicate that the table swiper was charged with theft and disorderly conduct, both misdemeanors.
Lombardo was complimentary of the police department and university administration for the handling of the various incidents.
She also remains undeterred, despite the hostility.
"To me, Turning Point means truth, and fighting for what you believe in," Lombardo said. "Because if we lose all hope, and we just give up on everything, then there's no way that we'd be able to have a future in America."
She described the militance of those who oppose Turning Point as motivational, and said that she prays for her opponents because she feels badly for them.
"I hope they find their way out of the hatred that they let run their lives," she said. "Because at the end of the day, even though I disagree with those people, and they may disagree with me, I believe they are just extremely misguided, and they have just been lied to."
She encouraged others to step up and fight for what they believe.
"To those people who are not quite sure if they want to step into the movement yet, to those people, I would say if you can't do it, if you won't do it, then who else will?"
Since Kirk's death, political leftists have opposed Turning Point with full force, as interest in the conservative organization has skyrocketed. Other right-leaning groups have also faced a barrage of hatred.
In one such incident, a teaching assistant at Illinois State University was caught on camera flipping a TPUSA table. He had been arrested only days prior for a similar act. He was later arrested by the FBI for allegedly making online threats against President Donald Trump.
Another repeat offender was accused of flipping a TPUSA table at the University of Iowa, after doing the same to a Young America's Foundation display prior.
Northern Arizona University declined to comment further.