Authorities confirmed. His name is Tyler Robinson. He was recognized in the photos by his father, to whom he later admitted the murder. He had written"Bella Ciao" and other anti-fascist slogans on the bullets.

The first announcement comes from US President Donald Trump, who on Fox says that Charlie Kirk's killer has been arrested. Then the official confirmations."We got him," said Utah's Republican governor, Spencer Cox. His name is Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Utah. The young man was arrested last night at 11 p.m. local time in St. George, Utah, near Zion National Park, four hundred kilometers away from the university campus where Kirk was killed. He confessed to the FBI, the governor added.

We have a high degree of certainty that it is him, Trump said on television a few hours before the confirmation press conference. I hope they give him the death penalty.

According to what Trump said during an interview with Fox, the alleged killer was reported to the authorities by his father. According to sources cited by several US media outlets, the young man confessed to the murder to his father, who then convinced him to turn himself in, thanks also to the intervention of a friend, keeping him with him until the police arrived.

A relative of Tyler Robinson contacted a family friend, who in turn alerted the Washington County Sheriff's Office , providing information that Robinson had confessed or implied to the crime, the governor later confirmed. His father apparently recognized him in photos released by authorities after the murder and then coaxed him into confessing. The same relative, Cox added, said Robinson had become more political in recent years, recalling a dinner at which he mentioned Kirk's arrival at Utah Valley University and commented to a family member that Kirk was hateful and spreading hate.

On the bullets, found along with the rifle wrapped in a dark cloth near the murder scene, he had written some phrases: among them, Bella ciao, ciao, ciao, Hey fascist, take this, If you read this you're gay. We owe you. Other bullets had symbols.

When FBI agents showed up at Tyler Robinson's house he was still wearing the sweatshirt used in the attack captured by surveillance cameras on the university campus in Utah.

Utah Governor Spencer Cox later reported that investigators interviewed Tyler Robinson's roommate, who showed them messages between him and an account under Tyler's name on the Discord messaging app. In the messages, Tyler stated the need to retrieve a rifle from a drop-off point, leave it in a bush, guard the area where the rifle was left, and keep it wrapped in a towel. The messages, he added, also discussed engraving bullets, a scope, and the rifle's uniqueness.

Kirk was like a son, the US leader said. I didn't want to watch the video of the shooting; I heard it was horrible.

In the past few hours, the FBI had released a new video of the escape of Kirk's killer—the conservative activist, very close to the Trump family, killed by a gunshot on Wednesday during a debate at Utah Valley University—and had said it knew the killer's name, offering $100,000 in exchange for information.

On the killer's mother's Facebook profile, we see, among other things, the story of how the young man had brilliantly passed the college entrance exam after graduating high school in August 2022 with excellent grades. There is also a video of her son reading a letter announcing that he had received a $32,000 national scholarship to Utah State University.

The elements on which the investigators had focused - as written by Viviana Mazza here - were the weapon - a high-powered manually repeating rifle -, the imprints of a forearm, the palm of a hand and a shoe, as well as the images of the attacker's escape.

Two people who were initially arrested were later released.

In the images released, the alleged killer appears to be a young man wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, jeans, and a black T-shirt with an eagle flying in front of the American flag and the words Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.

According to authorities, the suspect arrived on campus shortly before noon (the attack occurred at 12:10 p.m.) and used the stairs to reach the roof of a campus building, the Losee Center, which offered a clear view of the site where Kirk was scheduled to speak. After the shooting—a single shot to the neck—the suspect rappelled from the building and then disappeared into a wooded area, where the murder weapon was found.

As written by Matteo Persivale here,

Kirk — founder of Turning Point USA, when he was just eighteen—had a long-standing and close personal relationship with Donald and the rest of the family: eight years of political collaboration, frequent meetings and mutual support. The relationship between Kirk and Trump was one of mutual respect and, above all, mutual usefulness : the then candidate for the White House opened the doors of a presidential campaign in 2015-16 to a boy who had just graduated from high school (and who, incidentally, never finished college), Kirk gave Trump one of the few things he lacked: the keys to the world of youth, to campuses (American and beyond: he was also invited to the Oxford Union) and to social media.