Special Episode: A Suspect Is Caught in Charlie Kirk’s Assassination

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From the New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro.

This is a special episode of the Daily.

On Friday morning, police in Utah said that they had arrested a suspect in Charlie Kirk's assassination, ending a massive manhunt that had stretched over 33 hours.

Today,

what we know about the alleged killer and his motives.

It's Friday afternoon, September 12th.

Any updates on the suspect?

Yeah,

can I always say, I think just to protect us all, and so Fox doesn't get sued, and we all don't get sued.

The news came from President Trump himself on Fox News early Friday morning.

I think

with a high degree of certainty, we have him.

We're in custody, right?

In custody.

After two days of false starts and mistaken identity, including the questioning of two men who were later released, police in Utah, Trump said, had arrested the man that they believed had killed Charlie Kirk.

Everybody did a great job.

You know, getting somebody that you start off with absolutely nothing.

We started off with a clip that made him look like an ant that was almost useless.

We just saw there was somebody up there.

And so much work has been done over the last two and a half days.

You know, it's amazing.

Fox anchors repeatedly pushed Trump to answer the question on everyone's mind.

What can you share with us about his ideology?

What exactly were the shooters' motives and ideology?

I don't want to go too far.

I'd like to tell you some stories at how it happened, but Trump deflected it.

Instead, Trump laid out a complicated story, yet to be independently verified,

about how police had found the suspect.

Well, it was a minister, and the minister went to a friend, a minister who was involved with law enforcement, by the way.

He said that somebody who knew the suspect had recognized him in the photos released by police on Thursday.

And then it was

a father who got involved, namely his father.

And that eventually the suspect's own father persuaded him to turn himself into police.

But they drove into the police headquarters and he's there now.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

We got him.

A few hours later, the governor of Utah, Republican Spencer Cox, held a news conference.

On the evening of September 11th,

a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to.

Cox identified the suspect as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson and seemed to confirm some of what Trump had said on TV.

A family friend contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.

And Cox explained why police had become so certain that Robinson was the shooter and that he had acted alone.

When encountered in person by investigators in Washington County on September 12th, in the early morning hours, Robinson was observed in consistent clothing with those surveillance images.

Cox said that police had interviewed Robinson's roommate, who had shared text messages with police, in which Robinson had allegedly discussed the rifle that police now believe was used in the assassination.

And then Cox addressed the question of motive.

Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years.

The family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to September 10th, and in the conversation with another family member, Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU.

Robinson, he said, knew that Kirk was coming to town.

And Robinson had spoken with a member of his family about their shared dislike for Charlie Kirk.

They talked about why they didn't like him and the viewpoints that he had.

The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate.

And finally, the governor described engravings on the casings of bullets that police had found at the scene of the shooting.

Engravings filled with a mix of anti-fascist language and references to online gaming.

Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read, hey fascist exclamation point, catch exclamation point,

up arrow symbol, right arrow and symbol, and three down arrow symbols.

A second unfired casing read, O Bella Chow, Bella Chow, Bella Chow, Chow Chow.

And a third unfired casing read, if you read this, you are gay, L-M-A-O.

In those engravings, Robinson appeared to adopt the flippant, in-jokey chatter of internet message boards.

And what was clear was that police believe that they have extensive evidence tying Robinson to Kirk's shooting.

But a less than complete picture of why Robinson's apparent dislike of Kirk had led him to allegedly carry out this well-planned assassination.

Cox took a few questions from reporters and at the end of the news conference.

I don't want to get too preachy, but I think it's important that we, with eyes wide open, understand what's happening in our country today.

He asked for a chance to address the entire country.

And at a time when President Trump has been calling for vengeance, Cox delivered a very different kind of message.

I've heard people say, well,

why are we so invested in this?

There's violence happening all across our country, and violence is tragic everywhere.

And every life taken is a child of God who deserves our love and respect and dignity.

This is certainly about the

tragic death, assassination, political assassination of Charlie Kirk.

But it is also much bigger than an attack on an individual.

It is an attack on all of us.

It is an attack on the American experiment.

It is an attack on our ideals.

He spoke of a country that he feared is spiraling out of control.

And specifically speaking to young people, he pointed to what he said is a path

Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now.

Not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.

I think we need more moral clarity right now.

I hear all the time that words are violence.

Words are not violence.

Violence is violence.

And there is one person responsible

for what happened here, and that person is now in custody

and will be charged soon and will be held accountable.

And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different.

Turn off your phone, read scripture, spend time with friends, and remember: internet fury is not real life, it's going to be okay.

As of Friday afternoon, Tyler Robinson was being held without bail in a Utah prison, awaiting charges.

We're going to continue to follow this story closely over the coming days, both here on The Daily and at nytimes.com, and we'll bring you the latest developments as soon as we can.

Today's episode was produced by Claire Tennis Getter and Mooj Sadie.

It was edited by Michael Benoit and Paige Cowett and was engineered by Diane Wong.

I'm Michael Bilbaro.

See you on Monday.

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