Man claimed to shoot Charlie Kirk to 'draw attention from the real shooter,' police say

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• George Hodgson Zinn, 71, was arrested for investigation of obstruction of justice in the Charlie Kirk murder investigation.
• Police say Zinn claimed to shoot Kirk to divert attention from the actual shooter.
• Zinn was also arrested for investigation of sexual exploitation of a minor in a separate investigation.

OREM — Police say that a Salt Lake City man — who was no stranger to the state's political scene — claimed responsibility moments after the shooting death of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, in an attempt to "draw attention from the real shooter."

The arrest also sparked a child pornography investigation.

George Hodgson Zinn, 71, was booked into Utah County Jail for investigation of obstruction of justice and sexual exploitation of a minor on Monday, following a few days at a hospital. Newly released police documents also detail more of what happened that led to his arrest at Utah Valley University, which sparked a firestorm on social media.

After the lone shot was fired shortly after 12:20 p.m. last Wednesday, and as Kirk's security team rushed him to a hospital, officers at the scene reported that they saw an older man lying on the ground surrounded by people who appeared to be tending to him.

The man, later identified as Zinn, told the officer, "I shot him, now shoot me" twice, according to a jail report compiled by UVU police. The officer reported that he could not see a weapon, but he placed Zinn in handcuffs while others at the scene cleared the area.

Once in custody, Zinn continued to say he was the shooter, the report continued. Officers asked Zinn where the gun was, but they say he refused to tell them. He reportedly asked for his attorney when he was brought back to the university police headquarters for questioning, even after police said they didn't believe he was the shooter.

He later said he "did it to draw attention from the real shooter," police wrote in the report. He was first taken to a nearby hospital for an undisclosed medical condition. While at the hospital, Zinn told an officer that "he was glad he said he shot the individual so the real suspect could get away," the affidavit adds.

Zinn was released from the hospital on Monday and then booked into the Utah County Jail.

Photos and video of his arrest quickly spread on social media, leading to erroneous reports that he was the shooter. Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason announced that Zinn was taken into custody but had been cleared as the shooter within hours of his arrest.

Authorities ultimately determined that the single shot came from the roof of the nearby Losee Center, located about 175 to 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking underneath a tent. The single shot struck him in the neck, causing significant blood loss.

Kirk, 31, was later pronounced dead at Timpanogos Regional Hospital. He was at UVU as part of the "American Comeback Tour" hosted by Turning Point USA, the organization that he founded.

Tyler Robinson, 22, of Washington, Washington County, was taken into custody late Thursday and booked into Utah County Jail on Friday for investigation of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing injury and obstruction of justice. Authorities say charges in the case could be filed against Robinson as early as Tuesday. He's also scheduled to make his first court appearance.

Meanwhile, a motion was filed on Monday to hold Zinn without bail in relation to his arrest. It wasn't immediately clear if he had obtained any legal representation in the case. There is currently no evidence that Zinn "colluded with the shooter," Utah County Sheriff's deputies said in an update on Tuesday.

Utah County sheriff's deputies also launched another investigation into Zinn while he was hospitalized.

FBI investigators interviewed him at the hospital, where he admitted he wasn't the shooter, but he also said he "uses (his) phone to look at child sexual abuse material" after initially refusing to let investigators go through his phone, according to a second jail report completed by the Utah County Sheriff's Office later on Monday.

Investigators went through the phone and found multiple images containing children believed to be approximately 5 years old, according to the affidavit. The FBI agents alerted deputies, who later obtained a search warrant to search the phone. They reviewed the phone and found more than 20 images of child pornography along with explicit messages about sexual acts, according to the sheriff's office.

Zinn has been arrested and charged numerous times over the past 30 years, mostly for trespassing in political spaces, according to state court records. He had been charged with criminal trespassing upon an institution, a class B misdemeanor, in Provo Justice Court earlier this month for an incident on Aug. 22.

Zinn also made headlines in 2013 after he was charged with making a threat of terrorism, a second-degree felony, in relation to an email asking if Salt Lake City Marathon organizers "needed anybody to help place bombs near the finish line," shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing. Court records show he later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge, amending it to a class A misdemeanor.

He was also one of five people arrested during a disruption at a Utah Inland Port Authority Board meeting in 2019.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

Related topics

Charlie Kirk killingUtahUtah CountyPolice & Courts

Carter Williams

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Carter Williams is a reporter for KSL.com. He covers Salt Lake City, statewide transportation issues, outdoors, the environment and weather. He is a graduate of Southern Utah University.