Authorities have arrested a 22-year-old Utah man for the murder this week of MAGA activist Charlie Kirk.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said at a news conference that Tyler Robinson was arrested after a family member reached out to a family friend, who contacted law enforcement. Charges will likely be filed next week.
Earlier, President Donald Trump told Fox News that Robinson’s father was the person who turned in his son, and the Daily Mail said the father is a long time veteran of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
The governor said Robinson had “become more political in recent years” and had made comments about Kirk, saying he was “full of hate and spreading hate.”
Spencer also provided some details about the investigation, saying that the shooting suspect was seen arriving on the Utah Valley University campus in a gray Dodge Challenger earlier on Wednesday morning and was later found to own a similar car. Robinson’s roommate showed investigators Discord messages indicating “a need to retrieve a rifle” from an area that matched where they found the murder weapons.
Robinson changed clothes while on the roof, the governor said, and then changed again after the shooting. When he was arrested, he was wearing similar clothing to what he was wearing when he arrived on the campus.
And Spencer provided information about engravings on bullets but declined to interpret them.
A fired casing had the message “notices bulges OwO what’s this?” the governor said. Unfired casings had the phrase “hey fascist! Catch!” “if you read this you are gay,” and “oh bella ciao, bella cio, bella ciao, ciao, ciao.”
Spencer added that Robinson was not a student at the university where the shooting took place, debunking earlier reporting by some media outlets.
Spencer decried political violence without specifying any instances other than the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
“I still believe in our country,” he said. “I still believe that there is more good among us than evil. And I still believe we can change the course of history.”
“This is our moment,” Cox said. “Do we escalate or do we find an off-ramp? It’s a choice.”
Authorities have been looking for the shooter since the Wednesday afternoon murder when Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck at an appearance at Utah Valley University, as CrimeOnline reported. On Thursday, the FBI released surveillance photos of a “person of interest” wearing a black t-shirt, blue jeans, a dark hat, and dark sunglasses.
Later Thursday, the FBI released a video showing a man in dark clothing run across the roof of the Losee Center at Utah Valley University after the shooting, then drop down the one story to the grass below. He gathers something he’s carrying and runs across the yard to a nearby street.
The FBI said investigators found the gun used in the killing “in a wooded area near the university.”
“Trace evidence collected from the rooftop scene included shoe impressions, a forearm imprint, and a palm imprint,” the agency said.
On Thursday, three sources told CBS News they had a name for a person of interest, but the same sources later said that name “didn’t pan out.”
Politicians on both sides of the aisle swiftly condemned the shooting and political violence of all kinds. Such political attacks have seen a rapid increase in recent months, including the murders of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband in June by a man impersonating a police officer. That man also critically injured another state politician and his wife and had a list of dozens of Democratic lawmakers he wanted to target.
In April, a man broke into the home of Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and set it on fire. The family escaped without harm.
Trump himself has been the target of two assassination attempts, both by disgruntled supporters.
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[Featured image: Tyler Tobinson/Utah Governor’s Office]