Charlie Kirk’s suspected shooter is in custody and has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared in a Friday press conference.
The governor also clarified reports about inscriptions being found on bullet casings near the high-powered bolt action rifle discarded in the woods near Utah Valley University. The notes read: “Hey, fascist! Catch,” “Oh bella ciao bella ciao bella ciao ciao ciao,” “Notices bulges OWO What’s this?” and “If you read this, you are gay. LMAO.”
“On the evening of Sept. 11, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them, or implied, that he had committed the incident,” Cox said. “This information was relayed to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and scene investigators at Utah Valley University. This information was also conveyed to the FBI. Investigators reviewed additional video footage from UVU surveillance and identified Robinson arriving on UVU campus in a gray Dodge Challenger.”
“Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson, who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years. The family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to Sept. 10, and in the conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU,” he continued. “They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints that he had. The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate.”
Cox was joined by FBI Director Kash Patel, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason, Sheriff Mike Smith, Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls at the press conference.
“I want to express my deep gratitude to President Trump, the Vice President and the entire White House, who have been so incredibly supportive with both resources and just personally to the FBI as a team. They had our backs the entire way, and I just want to express my gratitude for giving us the resources we need to operate in this space, to bring this sort of justice at this sort of speed. In 33 hours, we have made historic progress for Charlie,” Patel said. “To my friend, Charlie Kirk. Rest now, brother, we have the watch, and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”
“Bad stuff happens,” Cox echoed. “For 33 hours, I was praying that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn’t be one of us — that somebody drove from another state, somebody came from another country. Sadly, that prayer was not answered the way I hoped for, just because I thought it would make it easier on us if we could just say, ‘Hey, we don’t do that here.’”
“I absolutely believe this is a watershed moment in American history, yes. The question is, what kind of watershed? And that chapter remains to be written. Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history or the beginning of a darker chapter?” he then asked. “We’ve seen another one with a gruesome stabbing very recently that went viral. This is not good for us; it is not good to consume. Social media is a cancer on our society right now, and I would encourage, again, I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community. That is happening, and it’s happening organically.”
“I want you to look at how Utahns reacted the last two nights. There was no rioting, there was no looting, there were no cars set on fire. There’s no violence. There were vigils and prayers and people coming together to share the humanity, and that, ladies and gentlemen, I believe, is the answer to this,” Cox also added. “We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate — and that’s the problem with with political violence, it metastasizes. Because we can always point the finger at the other side, and at some point we have to find an off ramp or it’s going to get much, much worse.”
The update came shortly after President Donald Trump told “Fox & Friends” that the suspected shooter turned himself in due to a family member’s intervention.
“Somebody close to him turned him. They said, ‘Whoa.’ It’s interesting. We had very good pictures, but not great, not perfect. And when you look at it, what happened is somebody — and this happens a lot, it happened with the crazy Boston bomber. It happened with others — somebody this close recognizes even a little tilt of the head, which nobody else would do, and somebody that was very close to him said, ‘Hmm, that’s him,’” Trump explained. “Essentially, went to the father, went to a U.S. Marshal, who was fantastic, by the way, and the person was involved with law enforcement but was a person of faith, a minister, and brought him to a U.S. Marshal who was fantastic, and the father convinced the son, this is it.”
Kirk was shot on Wednesday while speaking at his American Comeback Tour stop at UVU in Orem, Utah. He was transported to a local hospital, where he later died from his injuries. He was 31.
Due to Utah law, authorities now have three days to charge Robinson following his arrest. The death penalty is legal in the state.
