Charlie Kirk shooting: Everything we know about Tyler Robinson and the FBI investigation

THE SUSPECT IN the Charlie Kirk shooting is now in custody, the Governor of Utah Spencer Cox and the FBI have confirmed in a live press conference this evening. 

Here’s everything we know about the suspect and the ongoing investigation:

Investigation timeline 

Charlie Kirk was shot dead this week while speaking at an event in Utah Valley University in Orem. 

The event was part of Kirk’s ‘American Comeback’ tour which carried the slogan “prove me wrong”. 

Kirk was a proponent of gun access in the US, and had even previously said back in 2023 that in his view: “It’s worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” 

On Wednesday, Kirk was speaking to a crowd of roughly 3,000 people in a gazebo on the University campus.

In the moments before his death, he was speaking to an audience member about how many Americans who identify as transgender have committed mass shootings. 

(People who identify as transgender have actually only committed a very small percentage of mass shootings, and based on the statistical information available, the Poynter Institute makes the conclusion that there is no evidence to suggest that transgener people are more prone to this kind of violence). 

He was asked how many mass shootings have happened in the US in the last ten years, to which he replied: ”Counting or not counting gang violence?”

A single shot was heard before Kirk slumped into his chair, with a clear wound in his neck. He was removed from the stage, and the crowd at the event began to flee. 

Investigators believed from the outset that that shot was fired from the rooftop of a nearby building. 

Yesterday the FBI released CCTV images of a young man in a black sweatshirt, a baseball cap and glasses on the campus where the shooting happened, with a backpack. 

Later, they released footage of the suspect jumping from the rooftop of a building and running past a car park on the campus. 

They said that he left a gun and ammunition in a wooded area near the university, and told the public that trace evidence collected from the rooftop – where the fatal shot was fired from – included shoe impressions, a forearm imprint and a palm imprint. 

A $100,000 reward was offered to anyone who could offer information that would lead to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for Kirk’s murder. 

Today President Donald Trump broke the news that a suspect was in custody, as he told Fox News that he could say with a “high degree of certainty” that the FBI had arrested the shooter. 

Robinson is a 22-year-old from Utah. 

It’s been reported that he was taken into custody around 11pm on Thursday night in local Utah time. 

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Robinson had become ‘more political’

Officials today said at a press conference that Robinson had become “more political” in recent years and that he had told his family Kirk was going to be speaking at an event at the University, and that Kirk was “spreading hate”. 

His father works in local law enforcement and his mother is a disability services worker. 

His mother’s social media profiles show the family (including Robinson’s two brothers) on multiple trips and on festive occasions. 

In an image from 2017 Robinson is seen wearing a Halloween costume of Donald Trump. 

Utah Governor Spencer Cox said today that a relative turned Robinson in overnight after he confessed to them, which is now believed to have been his father. 

The relative passed the information on to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office and it was then relayed to the FBI, according to Cox. 

Robinson’s arrest came following a huge manhunt on the ground. Investigators interviewed over 200 people and received around 11,000 tips from the public. 

 The weapon 

The FBI said that it found a high-powered firearm, an imported Mauser .30-06 bolt action rifle wrapped in a towel abandoned in a wooded area.

Cox described in detail messages that were engraved on the bullet casings from the weapon that was recovered from a wooded area near the university after the shooting, they included: 

• “Hey Fascists, Catch!” with an up arrow symbol, a right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols. 
• “If You Read This You Are Gay LMAO” 
• A reference to the anti-fascist song “Bella Ciao”: ”Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao.”

The messages on the casing of the bullet that was actually fired said: “notices, bulges, OWO, what’s this?”. 

At this time it is still unclear what Robinson’s motives were and what the intention behind these messages was.

Officials today said that investigators reviewed messages on the social media platform Discord that showed that the suspect was the one who engraved the messages that were found on the bullet casings.  

Cox said that Robinson’s “roommate” shared Discord messages with investigators that described him needing to attain a rifle with a mounted scope from a “drop point”, and that it had been wrapped in a towel and left in a bush. 

The weapon is being analysed at an FBI lab for possible evidence.

What’s going to happen now? 

In his Fox News interview today Trump said that Kirk’s shooter would receive the death penalty. 

Cox has echoed Trump and said that he will pursue the death penalty when the suspect is tried. 

He also said that this is a “watershed” moment 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?” 

The case has sparked a huge amount of debate online in the US and across the world, with some Trump supporters blaming the political left for the shooting, and accusing the left of having a political violence problem. 
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau yesterday warned that Washington may take action against foreigners “praising, rationalising, or making light” of the killing of Kirk. 

He said that anyone viewed to be doing so would not be a welcome visitor in the United States. 

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