The 22-year-old suspect, being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, indicated to a relative that he had shot Mr. Kirk on a Utah campus, the authorities said.
A more than 30-hour manhunt for the gunman who shot and killed Charlie Kirk before a crowd of thousands ended late Thursday, more than 250 miles away, officials said, with a phone call from a family friend of the suspect who is now in custody.
Tyler Robinson, 22, is being held in the Utah County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder and other felonies, according to court records. The authorities identified him Friday as the person that they believe shot Mr. Kirk, and said they believe he acted alone.
The announcement of an arrest capped an intense, multiagency manhunt that began with the grisly assassination of Mr. Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday afternoon. It included two mistaken announcements by the authorities that they had a suspect in custody, only for those people to be released, before ending in Washington County, Utah.
Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah said in a news conference that a relative of the suspect had contacted a family friend after the shooting. That friend then contacted a sheriff’s office and told officers that the suspect had confessed, or suggested that he had committed the killing.
Through interviews with a relative and a roommate, investigators also learned that the suspect had criticized Mr. Kirk not long before the shooting, Mr. Cox said, and that he had sent messages about needing to “retrieve a rifle from a drop point.”
The Utah County attorney, Jeff Gray, plans to file formal charges against the suspect on Tuesday, according to Mr. Gray’s chief of staff. The suspect is expected to make his first court appearance, in a virtual hearing, that day at 3 p.m. Mountain time.
Here’s what else to know:
-
Bullet engravings: Investigators said they had found messages inscribed on unfired cartridges alongside a rifle in the woods near campus. The messages suggested familiarity with antifascist symbolism and the irreverent slang of internet memes and role-play communities. None of the etchings pointed to a particular interest in transgender issues, contradicting an earlier, unverified report that had circulated inside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. (In fast-moving investigations, such status reports are generally not made public because they sometimes contain inaccurate information.) Read more ›
-
Trump comments: President Trump announced the arrest in an early-morning appearance on “Fox & Friends,” the Fox News television show, and said he had learned about it moments before coming on the air. His comments outpaced Utah officials, who shared more details at a news conference about two hours later. Mr. Trump also blamed the “radical left” for much of the political violence in the country. Read more ›
-
Final question: The last person to speak to Mr. Kirk before his assassination was a liberal TikToker, who asked Mr. Kirk about mass shootings involving transgender people. The two went back and forth before the shot that killed Mr. Kirk rang out. Read more ›
Source: The New York Times Nicholas Bogel-BurroughsGlenn Thrush and Jacey Fortin
