Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect Is In Custody After Family Turned Him In

Charlie Kirk was killed earlier this week during a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University, and law enforcement officials now have a suspect in custody. Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah resident, was arrested after he was turned in by family members. Officials say he was not a student at the university.

“We have the person that we think is the person we’re looking for, but they drove into the police headquarters, and he’s there now,” Trump said on on Fox & Friends Friday morning (Sept. 12). “I think with a high-degree of certainty, we have him,” before adding that, “essentially, someone who knew him turned him in.” 

NBC reported a family member saw the photos of the suspect and turned Robinson into police. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the Washington County Sheriff’s Office was contacted with information that Robinson “had either confessed or implied that he had carried out Wednesday’s shooting.”

In the hours after the shooting, the FBI stepped in an requested tips from the public. The assassination was caught on camera and shows Kirk sitting under a tent debating with students before a single shot rang out and struck him in the neck. He was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Other angles that surfaced showed a figure in dark clothing running across a rooftop opposite the event.

A member of Robinson’s family who was interviewed by investigators said the suspect had become “more political” in recent years. Also per the outlet, his roommate showed investigators various Discord messages from Robinson, including ones that said he “needed to get a rifle from a drop point” and another about leaving that rifle “in a bush.”

Yesterday (Sept. 11), a rifle that was wrapped in a towel was found by officials, and there were also Discord messages that referenced the spot where it was found and the towel. Cox confirmed that inscriptions were found on the bullet casings belonging to Robinson. On some of the casings, engraved writings read “Hey fascists! Catch!” with an up arrow, a right arrow and three down arrows; “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao”; and “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.”

Vice President JD Vance, who was a close friend of Kirk’s, credits him with playing a key role success of Trump’s presidential victory. Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that aims to “advocate for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses.” Kirk has risen in popularity over the years for his extremely polarizing takes, which resulted in a heavy split among reactions to his passing.

View VIBE’s roundup of reactions to Kirk’s death here.