OREM, Utah. The 22-year-old student accused of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah is in custody and expected to face formal charges next week, officials said Saturday.
Tyler Robinson, a third-year student at Dixie Technical College, was arrested Thursday night after relatives and a family friend reported that he had implicated himself in the killing. “We got him,” Governor Spencer Cox told reporters at a press conference on Friday, announcing the end of a 33-hour manhunt.
Kirk, co-founder of Turning Point USA and a close ally of former President Donald Trump, was shot dead on Wednesday by a single rifle round fired from a rooftop during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University in Orem attended by about 3,000 people.
A bolt-action rifle believed to be the murder weapon was recovered nearby. Surveillance images released by police showed a “person of interest” in dark clothing and sunglasses. The breakthrough came when Robinson’s relatives informed the sheriff’s office that he had “confessed to them or implied that he had committed” the shooting, Cox said.
Robinson was arrested at his parents’ home in St. George, about 260 miles southwest of the crime scene, and police later searched his apartment nearby. Evidence collected included shell casings engraved with messages, some of which referenced internet memes and video games. One casing, according to the arrest affidavit, read: “If you read This, you are GAY Lmao.”
Robinson is being held on suspicion of aggravated murder and related offenses. Charges are expected to be formally filed early next week, Cox confirmed.
The killing, which Trump denounced as a “heinous assassination,” has heightened concerns about political violence in the United States. Cox described it as a “watershed in American history,” likening it to the political assassinations of the 1960s.
Kirk’s supporters have announced a memorial service for September 21 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. Meanwhile, his death has sparked both outrage and widespread condemnation of political violence across the ideological spectrum. Allies of Kirk have also launched online campaigns urging employers to dismiss individuals who mock or downplay the murder; at least 15 suspensions or firings have been linked to such comments, according to Reuters.
Investigators have not disclosed a clear motive. While state records show Robinson was a registered voter without party affiliation, a relative told authorities that he had expressed growing political views in recent years and voiced dislike for Kirk.
Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, cautioned against focusing solely on ideology. “The ideological beliefs of the shooter don’t matter. What matters is how they’re taken by society,” she said, warning that finger-pointing could fuel further violence regardless of the attacker’s background.
Trump, speaking to NBC News on Saturday, blamed his political opponents. “I’d like to see it heal. But we’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair and they never did,” he said.
Kirk’s death comes amid what experts describe as the most sustained wave of political violence in the United States in decades. Since the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Reuters has documented more than 300 politically motivated violent acts across the ideological spectrum.
Trump has himself survived two assassination attempts in the past year, while Democrats have also been targeted, including the April arson attack on Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s residence and the June shooting in Minnesota that killed state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.
Edgardo Hernal started college at UP Diliman and received his BA in Economics from San Sebastian College, Manila, and Masters in Information Systems Management from Keller Graduate School of Management of DeVry University in Oak Brook, IL. He has 25 years of copy editing and management experience at Thomson West, a subsidiary of Thomson Reuters.
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