The man suspected of fatally shooting American conservative activist Charlie Kirk is finally in custody following a two-day federal manhunt, authorities have confirmed.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox named Tyler Robinson, 22, as the suspected shooter at a news conference on Friday, after United States President Donald Trump himself announced that a suspect had been arrested. “We got him,” Cox said.
He added that a family member of Robinson’s had reached out to a friend who contacted the authorities, and that friends and family members of Robinson, who had been interviewed by investigators, had described him as “full of hate” when discussing Charlie Kirk at a recent social gathering.
Robinson is understood to be a local resident, not a student at the university.
Here is what we know so far:
What did Trump say about Kirk’s shooter?
Before the announcement from Governor Cox and the FBI on Friday morning local time, Trump told the Fox News programme, Fox & Friends, that Kirk’s shooter was finally in custody.
“I think with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump told the programme, adding that someone “very close to him turned him in”.
He also said the shooter had been apprehended “five minutes before I walked in” to the TV interview.
Trump said he hoped Kirk’s shooter would receive the death penalty and praised Kirk, expressing sadness over his death.
He described Kirk as the “finest person” who “didn’t deserve this”.
Trump also called Kirk “brilliant” and said that he was “like a son” who helped him with TikTok.
“I’ve never seen young people go to one person like they did to Charlie,” Trump said.
Who was Charlie Kirk and what happened to him?
A conservative media personality and staunch Trump ally, Kirk, 31, helped to revitalise the Republican youth vote and return US President Donald Trump to the White House in last year’s presidential election.
He was fatally shot in the neck in front of a crowd of 3,000 people on Wednesday as he spoke at an event at Utah Valley University. He was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.
Kirk’s shooting led to tributes pouring in from Trump, former US presidents and world leaders.
How was Robinson caught?
Governor Cox told a news conference on Friday: “On the evening of September 11, a family member of Tyler Robinson contacted a family friend, who then informed the Washington County Sheriff’s Office that Robinson had either confessed to or implied that he had committed the incident.
“This information was relayed to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and investigators at Utah Valley University and conveyed to the FBI.”
He explained that investigators had reviewed additional video footage from the surveillance footage already released and identified Robinson arriving on campus in a Dodge Challenger on the morning of September 10. Family members interviewed by investigators confirmed that Robinson drove such a vehicle.
He also added: “Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years.”
The news of Robinson’s arrest came after a federal manhunt during which investigators interviewed more than 200 people and received about 11,000 tips from the public.
Police and federal investigators also asked the public to help identify the suspect, releasing photographs and video footage showing a “person of interest”.
Utah’s Department of Public Safety released several photographs of a white man wearing Converse trainers, jeans, a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a US flag and eagle on it, and a black baseball cap with a triangle.
What evidence has been gathered?
Surveillance footage released at a news conference on Thursday showed the man fleeing across a university rooftop about 120 metres (400ft) from where Kirk was speaking, before dropping down to the ground and running along the edge of the campus car park, across the road and into nearby woods, leaving behind palm and shoe prints which were being analysed.
Investigators said they had recovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a dark-coloured towel in the nearby woodland, which they believe was used in the shooting.
FBI special agent Robert Bohls described the weapon as “a high-powered, bolt-action rifle”. According to US media outlets citing sources, it is an imported Mauser .30-06 bolt-action rifle.
Unlike semiautomatic guns, bolt-action rifles have a slower rate of fire but are valued for their precision. Bohls said the weapon is currently undergoing analysis at an FBI laboratory for possible evidence.
Governor Cox said cryptic messages were engraved on shell casings recovered with the rifle, which he read out phonetically. Their meaning is not immediately clear.
One spent shell case read: “Notices, bulges OWO what’s this?”
Cox said three unfired shell cases read: “Hey fascist! Catch! Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols”, “Oh Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao, Ciao” and “If you read this, you are gay, LMAO”.
Cox said investigators had identified Robinson’s roommate who, he said, had shared several messages from Robinson on Discord. These described needing to pick up a rifle that had a scope mounted on it from a “drop point” and that it had been wrapped in a towel and left in a bush. The messages also discussed engraving shell casings.
What happens next?
Cox has pledged to pursue the death penalty when the suspected attacker is tried. Trump has echoed this in his own comments.
However, he added that Kirk’s killing represents a “watershed in American history”.
“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 in our history?”
Cox called on people to turn off social media, “touch grass” and engage with fellow members of their communities. “This is our moment. Do we escalate or do we find an off ramp? It’s a choice,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kirk’s killing has unleashed a wave of anger among conservatives in the US.
Some Trump supporters blamed the political left and claimed Kirk’s murder was the culmination of years of hostility towards Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
“They couldn’t beat him in a debate, so they assassinated him,” Isabella Maria DeLuca, a January 6 rioter who has been pardoned by Trump and a conservative activist, wrote on X.
Mike Davis, a Republican lawyer and prominent Trump supporter, said Kirk’s ability to galvanise a new generation of conservatives posed “an existential threat to the future of leftist ideology and power”.
