Suspect in Charlie Kirk murder captured after two-day manhunt

OREM, Utah: A young Utah man suspected of killing the conservative activist Charlie Kirk at a university forum has been taken into custody, as US leaders reacted with sorrow and frustration over the latest outbreak of political violence sweeping the country.

“We got him,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox told reporters at a briefing on Friday, expressing a sense of relief after an intense manhunt by local and federal law enforcement that followed Kirk’s murder on Wednesday by a sniper at Utah Valley University in Orem.

The suspect, identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody on Thursday night, about 33 hours after the shooting, FBI Director Kash Patel told reporters.

Robinson was captured after he confessed to a family friend, or “implied that he had committed” the murder to that friend, the governor said. That person in turn contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday.

Law enforcement officials had previously released a series of security camera images of a person of interest and asked the public to help identify him.

Kirk, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, was killed by a single bullet as he spoke onstage at an outdoor amphitheatre at Utah Valley. Trump called the shooting a “heinous assassination.”

Details about Robinson’s life were just beginning to emerge on Friday. At the time of the shooting he was living with his parents at his family’s home in Washington County, in the southwest corner of Utah near the Nevada border, Cox said, but the governor also referred to investigators interviewing a roommate of Robinson.

The suspect did not appear to have any criminal history, according to state records. He was a registered voter but was not affiliated with a political party, according to state voter records.

A family member interviewed by investigators said Robinson had become more political recently and spoke in a disparaging manner about Kirk, Cox said.

He was arrested for aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious injury and obstruction of justice, according to an affidavit filed by investigators. He has not been formally charged in court and is being held at the Utah County jail.

Investigators previously said they had found the bolt-action rifle believed to have been used to kill Kirk.

Investigators spoke to Robinson’s roommate, who showed them comments Robinson had made on Discord - a chat and streaming platform popular with gamers - where he discussed retrieving a rifle from a drop point and then ditching it in a bush wrapped in a towel. That matched the description of the gun recovered after the shooting in a wooded area near campus.

Ammunition found at the scene had been engraved with inscriptions, Cox said. The messages on the casings included: “O Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Ciao, ciao!”; “If you read This, you are GAY Lmao”; and “hey fascist! CATCH!” followed by arrow symbols that appeared to be a reference to a button-sequence for a videogame, according to the arrest affidavit.

The bullet that killed Kirk had also been inscribed: “Notices Buldge OWO what’s this?” an apparent reference to a jokey meme about online roleplay and gaming.

Politicians, commentators and amateur sleuths have filled social media and online forums with speculation and blame-casting about the killer’s identity and ideology. Cox told reporters he would leave interpretation of the messages on the ammunition to others for now.

Kirk, a well-connected activist, author and podcast host, was friends with Vice President JD Vance, Trump’s family and others at the highest echelons of the US government.

President Donald Trump urged supporters on Thursday to respond peacefully to the killing of right-wing campaigner Charlie Kirk.

Trump, who soon after the killing angrily pledged a wide-ranging response against the “radical left,” told reporters that Kirk had been “an advocate of nonviolence.” “That’s the way I’d like to see people respond,” he said.