Tyler Robinson ‘appeared to confess’ to Charlie Kirk killing; DNA found near scene, FBI says
DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle found near where Kirk was assassinated matched that of Tyler Robinson, as a US news outlet reports the 22-year-old wrote ‘it was me’ in an online chat.
Charlie Kirk assassination suspect Tyler Robinson allegedly confessed to the killing of the conservative activist in an online chat before he surrendered to police.
The Washington Post reports Mr Robinson posted to Discord, where he was active with a group: “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. It was me at UVU yesterday. (I’m) sorry for all of this.”
The 22-year-old allegedly sent his confession to a small group of close friends on Thursday night, before turning himself over to police.
Discord is understood to be co-operating with the FBI and local authorities on their investigation and has provided details to investigators about Mr Robinson’s online presence.
The platform previously revealed that an internal investigation found “no evidence that the suspect planned this incident or promoted violence on Discord”.
Mr Robinson’s family and friends said he spent large amounts of time scrolling the “dark corners of the internet”, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said, and that he had become radicalised to “leftist” ideologies “in a fairly short amount of time”.
DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle found near where Mr Kirk was assassinated matched that of the suspected killer, FBI director Kash Patel said on Monday.
Investigators also have used DNA evidence to link Mr Robinson with a screwdriver recovered from the rooftop where the fatal shot was fired, Mr Patel told Fox News Channel on Monday.
Authorities in Utah are preparing to file capital murder charges against Mr Robinson as early as Tuesday in the killing of Mr Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics who became a confidant of President Donald Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation's largest political organisations.
Mr Kirk, who brought young, conservative evangelical Christians into politics, was shot last Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University during one of his many campus stops. The shooting raised fears about increasing political violence in a deeply polarised United States.
Officials have said Mr Robinson carried a hatred for Mr Kirk and ascribed to a “leftist ideology” that had grown in recent years.
Mr Patel told Fox News that Mr Robinson had written in a note before the shooting that he had an opportunity to take out Mr Kirk and was going to do it. Investigators were able to recover the note’s contents after it had been destroyed, the FBI director said, paraphrasing from the note without revealing more details.
Authorities said Mr Robinson has not been co-operating with law enforcement. They say he may have been “radicalised” online and that ammunition found in the gun used to kill Mr Kirk included anti-fascist and meme-culture language engravings. Court records show that one bullet casing had the message, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”. Mr Robinson was arrested late on Thursday near where he grew up around St George, in the southwestern corner of Utah between Las Vegas and Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. It’s unclear whether he has a lawyer who could speak on his behalf, and his family have declined to comment to The Associated Press.
Tributes to Mr Kirk continue across the country. A line of mourners wrapped around the Kennedy Centre in Washington for a vigil on Sunday, and there were moments of silence at several professional sporting events.
Vice-President JD Vance, who counted Mr Kirk as a close friend, served as a substitute host on Monday for Mr Kirk’s talk show on Rumble, a streaming platform.
“Please join me as I pay tribute to my friend,” Mr Vance wrote on social media.
AP
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