Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old man accused of killing Charlie Kirk, reportedly became “more political” in recent years.
During an FBI press conference, Utah Republican Gov. Spencer Cox revealed that Robinson reached out to a family friend, who then contacted authorities. Robinson spoke negatively of Kirk before the shooting, a family member told investigators, the governor said.
Before the fatal shooting, Robinson revealed to family and friends that Kirk was coming to UVU.
Robinson told the group that he disliked Kirk because of his viewpoints and that he believed Kirk was “full of hate and spreading hate.”
“Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years,” Gov. Spencer Cox said Friday in a news conference.
“In the conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU. They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints that he had,” the governor said.
Gov. Cox said that authorities looked at surveillance footage from Utah Valley University and saw the suspect arrive on campus in a Dodge Challenger on Wednesday morning.
Cox added that he was wearing a basic maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black hat with a white logo, and light-colored sneakers.
The governor added that when investigators found the suspect
this morning, he was wearing clothes that were “consistent” with what was seen on video.
Gov. Cox said that investigators recovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel and casings with engravings on them.
“Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read ‘Hey, fascist! Catch!” he said, adding there was an “‘Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol and three down arrow symbols.’”
A police officer said that the father of the man who is suspected of shooting Charlie Kirk recognized his son from pictures that had been made public.
The dad told his son to give himself up. He also asked a young pastor for help. The pastor phoned the US Marshals, and they arrested the guy.
“They’re going to get a shot at interrogating him. He’s got to be properly Mirandized,” he said on “CNN News Central.”
“They’ll bring in someone who has some expertise in this area, demonstrated experience, and they’ll see what they can get out of him. But in the meantime, they’re going to go through the process of matching the forensic evidence up with him. Now you’re building towards a prosecution and a trial.”
Swecker said they will get an arrest warrant and then an indictment, which he said would probably be a state murder charge.
“There’s a whole lot of investigation now that will focus not on the manhunt part, but on the building the prosecution part, matching all the evidence, up to him and backtracking through all of that and then, you know of course, they’re going to be at his house, executing a search warrant.
“They’re going to be gathering evidence from whatever devices he has. They’ll go through all of that,” he said.
President Donald Trump suggested on Friday morning that Kirk’s political organization, Turning Point USA, will continue to do its work to mobilize and turn out young voters following Kirk’s death.
“He had a passion for this. I spoke to his wife yesterday. She’s like devastated, but in between the devastation, they want to keep Turning Point going,” he said on Fox News.
Trump said that there have been donation offers to the organization.
“They want to keep Turning Point going. They think they can do that. He had a very good staff,” the president said.
