North Wales residents react to ‘Charlie Kirk candlelight vigil’ in borough park

A weekend gathering in North Wales has drawn plenty of discussion from residents and vows from council about how to handle future events.

Council members and a resident sparred on Tuesday night, expressing reactions to a vigil in Weingartner Park on Sept. 14 held in memory of late activist Charlie Kirk.

“Political discourse is going to occur. And the First Amendment allows anybody to use a public space, for whatever they decide to use it for,” said Interim Council President Mark Tarlecki.

Last week organizers posted on social media plans to host a “Charlie Kirk Candlelight Vigil for Peace” in the park, prompting several rounds of online sparring over the Sept. 10 shooting death of the conservative activist. On Sunday, several hundred residents of the borough and community gathered in the park and heard speeches by local officials, clergy, and activist Scott Presler. The event drew reaction at the Tuesday council meeting.

Former Mayor Greg D’Angelo, the only Republican candidate for any office in town this fall, kicked off the debate by asking why none of the council members appeared.

“It was very crowded: I’d say about 900 or 1,000 people, give or take. Correct me if I’m wrong, I stayed toward the front, but I didn’t see any members of council there. It was very disappointing. This was a big event: maybe you thought it was just for Charlie Kirk, and it wasn’t,” D’Angelo said.

“I said, ‘We are here tonight on this somber occasion, to remember and to pray for Charlie Kirk, and all those who have suffered violent deaths because of ideological differences,’ whether they were political, or religious, or social. And that’s what we were trying to do,” he said.

The former mayor, who’s running for that post and for a council seat this November, said he then quoted Thomas Jefferson in saying he had hoped the gathering would help bridge disagreements.

“He said people need to have conversations, and even debates, but conversations with those of different views in order to get to the real truth. Otherwise, you’re just left with falsehoods. We have to have those discussions,” he said.

“There were a lot of people there from out of town, from out of the borough. If somebody had been there to represent borough council, that person would’ve been invited to say a few words. You missed a golden opportunity to show what you’re about,” D’Angelo said. He referenced a similar gathering in Weingartner Park in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd, then cited two nearby towns where online comments on Kirk’s shooting have prompted pushback from residents. “We’ve had a lot of hatred all over the place. Look at what happened in Ambler, and even Upper Gwynedd, what Denise Hull said. This would’ve been an opportunity just to be there, and to have a discussion.”

Council Vice President Wendy McClure replied by explaining why she didn’t attend: “I don’t find Charlie Kirk to be a person that I admire. If it was going to be a prayer vigil, and a peace vigil, that’s one thing. But they specifically mentioned him, and didn’t mention all the other children that were murdered, the other people that were killed in their homes and such. The focus was on him.”

    Signs read ‘In Memory of Charlie Kirk’ and ‘We are all Charlie Kirk’ at a ‘Charlie Kirk Candlelight Vigil for Peace’ in North Wales on Sunday night, Sept. 14, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Lisa Vogel)
  

Emily Marbot of Smith Street then said she didn’t attend in person, but had heard rumors from neighbors, and wanted to share her thoughts and find some facts.

“It’s hard to put into words how it feels to no longer feel safe in a place that is your home. And if you’ve had the privilege to never have this experience, it’s one I don’t wish on anyone,” she said.

Marbot noted that Kirk “had no ties to North Wales and even to this region,” and said she saw the social media chatter growing quickly: “Water donations needed, candles, a stage, a podium, someone making T-shirts resembling the one he wore supporting the organization he founded, based on a platform of hatred of many minoritized groups. The post quickly snowballed, and hundreds of comments on many different posts spewed hatred back-and-forth of opposing political views from our neighbors.”

A borough resident for a dozen years, Marbot told council that “when the new administration was inducted in January, for the first time in years, I took down the Pride flag that I have proudly flown at my house. While I needed to prioritize the safety of my family, and not make ourselves a target for any potential violence, I also kept faith in my North Wales neighbors that it could never happen in my neighborhood.”

“As a LGBTQIA+ family, knowing that hundreds of neighbors with opposing views from mine would be walking to the event three blocks from my house, I locked my doors and I turned off my lights at 5:30 p.m. on a Sunday night, with beautiful weather, where I otherwise would’ve been scootering past Weingartner Park with my son, or playing at the elementary school playground. But I knew it wasn’t safe to do that that night.”

Neighbors sent “photos of the armed men on the roof” of North Wales Elementary School just across from the park, Marbot told council, and said she’d heard of “snipers and SWAT teams on the roof of the school where I play with my son,” before saying she “never wanted that image in my son’s head and to be afraid of his own neighborhood or have to explain to him why an event claiming to be for peace needed that kind of police presence.”

She asked how many town officials knew of the event beforehand, if the decor used during the gathering was the same as the town used during their July 4 celebration, and what the approval process was for the event.

“No one can argue that this man’s death is unfortunate and sad for people who cared about him. No matter what side of the political aisle you sit on, no one hopes and prays for that to happen to anyone. More often than not, over the past several days we have seen people in this country who idolize him as a martyr mobilizing and gathering under the guise of revenge and revival,” she said.

“Sunday’s event felt very scary to me, knowing that hundreds of my neighbors believed in the things that man believed in to show up to honor his memory,” Marbot said. “I’ve seen people out and about wearing the freedom shirts they wore to the event that night, and I know I’ll see them at the North Wales Community Day this weekend and I will know what they stand for and I will hold my son a little closer and I will wish for the innocence of community and empathy before the times of this political turmoil.”

Police chief, attorney outline response

Tarlecki thanked Marbot for the comments, and asked police Chief Dave Erenius and town solicitor Greg Gifford to outline how they learned of, and responded to, the event. According to the chief, on Thursday of that week a resident asked borough staff if a permit was needed for the gathering, staff said it was not, and the organizer said their estimate was that 25 to 50 people would attend.

“They’re public spaces: anybody can use them for any reason,” Erenius said.

Within a day, word of the gathering had caught fire on social media, with commitments from guest speakers, and estimated crowds in the hundreds, so the chief called in five of the town’s six police officers, and other departments across Montgomery County for mutual aid.

“I can’t take politics into it. It doesn’t matter to me which side you’re on, I’m there to protect everybody,” said the chief.

“As far as snipers on the roof: there’s overwatch on the roof. If there’s a point where somebody’s gonna be, to do harm, it’s going to be on the roof of that school, because it’s the highest point. So we wanted to make sure nobody was up there, and those officers could overlook the entire event, and hopefully see anything unfold before it turned bad,” Erenius said.

Gifford, the solicitor, said he only heard about the gathering after it happened, and called for an executive session of council to hear that timeline from the chief, and discuss lessons learned and ways to plan for any future incidents.

“Everything was done flawlessly, there were no issues,” he said, before making a comparison to the 2020 vigil.

“The borough’s doesn’t permit: the same thing as when we had the horrible murder of Mr. Floyd, we had a vigil in the park. This was supposed to just be a vigil, apparently it wasn’t, apparently there was some political stuff. It shouldn’t happen, but apparently it did happen. Fortunately, the chief did a great job for North Wales,” Gifford said. “Sometimes, you can’t just stop people from being political.”

McClure added that she was “so upset” to learn of the of the plans to commemorate Kirk: “This just happened, and our country is so besides themselves. And now, here in our borough, we have a thousand people show up, and we were scared. I was scared. You asked me why I didn’t go, I was scared, I didn’t know what was going to happen.”

“It’s not like the peace vigil they had for Mr. Floyd. It was different. It was very organized, and it was a peace rally. This, in my estimation, was not,” she said.

‘It’s a great place to live’

Resident Andrew Berenson then asked for more facts: “Was anyone killed? Was anyone injured?” and the chief answered no to both. Councilman Sherwin Collins then said he only found out about the gathering when word came from the attorney, and didn’t know if he would have attended if he had known beforehand.

“I’ve lived in North Wales for 30 years. One event is not going to make this an unsafe town. It’s not going to make it a worse place to live. I’ve raised my son here. It’s a great place to live. And after being here for 30 years, I see no indication that this would make it any more dangerous, to have a bunch of outsiders come into the town for something like this,” he said.

Fred Gissubel, also of Smith Street, asked if the event could have been moved elsewhere, by either the borough or the organizers.

“Why is it being held in our public parks? Where the town comes to gather, it’s where we have our own parties, and it is about us coming together as people, and not celebrating divisive issues. We have enough of that during elections,” he said.

Tarlecki answered that Weingartner is likely the largest public space in the town for such events, and the town can’t limit those who do so.

“If it’s a public space, anybody has the right to use it. Regardless of what side of the fence you’re on, your beliefs, you’re entitled to that,” he said.

Residents should also note the distinction between the town’s official Facebook page, where staff post notifications about official events like regular public council meetings and the upcoming Community Day, compared to the North Wales Area Community Facebook group run by residents where word of the vigil went viral.

Part of the discussion in the exec session focused on ways the town’s officials could learn more about such events before they happen, and a prior town communications subcommittee could help play a role, he added. Gissubel then asked if the town could require permits for such large gatherings, and Gifford said any attempt to do so by council would likely face, and could lose, legal challenges.

“Legally, if they had come to me and said ‘Can we stop this?’ I probably would have advised them ‘Yes, but you will be sued.’ That’s just the way in which things are handled,” the attorney said.

Police could intervene if they see any criminal offense like a fight or property damage, Tarlecki added, and Erenius said no such altercations or damage were seen or reported. Marbot said her concern about safety was largely to do with large numbers of people from out of town: “It’s more unknown, than what we know with our neighbors.”

Collette D’Angelo, former member of the town’s human relations commission, said she attended both the 2020 Floyd vigil and the recent one, and compared the two.

“Both events were peaceful. We heard nothing happened, no arrests. We cannot, as citizens, control who is going to say something that may offend you or me at a public event,” she said.

“We have to have peaceful dialogue, like we’re doing tonight. We’re not all going to agree. And that is part of what’s so great about being Americans. There’s a lot of fear right now, because you had a human being, that was speaking about what he believed in — you take the politics out, he was speaking about what he believed in, and he was assassinated,” she said.

Former councilwoman Jocelyn Tenney asked if the town had any requirement to notify staff or police of such events, and borough Manager Christine Hart said “that would certainly be preferable…but if somebody chooses not, unfortunately our jobs are to be prepared, and handle it as it comes.”

Tenney asked if that vigil had approached the park’s capacity, and Tarlecki and Hart said it wasn’t close: the town’s annual summer kickoff and food truck festival typically draws 1,500 to 3,000 visitors, also largely from out of town.

Several council members added thanks to the chief for his efforts in protecting the vigil and the residents, and councilwoman Candace Anderson said that response “makes me feel safe, to be in this town,” while councilman Alex Groce said he was proud of the discussion.

“What happened here this evening was a beautiful thing. We had peaceful discourse, and to say we are lucky is an understatement,” he said.

He has known “many individuals who grew up under the hells of communism and in oppressive, authoritarian regimes,” Groce added, and has met one Holocaust survivor who fled Nazi Germany for the United States. All have had a similar message: “The common theme from all of these individuals was, and is — you don’t know how lucky you are, and you are the envy of so many around the world,” Groce said.

Gifford added that part of the talks by council so far have included ways that group could better monitor outside communications like the Facebook page, and Tarlecki said those talks will continue, with public input welcome.

“That’s what democracy is all about: we can have different opinions,” Tarlecki said.

North Wales borough council next meets at 7 p.m. on Oct. 14 at the borough municipal building, 300 School Street. For more information visit www.northwalesborough.org.

This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com

 Check Out More