Tyler Robinson, the prime suspect in the murder of MAGA youth leader and close Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk, borrowed the Garfield the Cat comic strip as his Discord avatar—specifically, the stunned face of its owner, Jon Arbuckle. The day after Kirk was shot in the neck while participating in an outdoor debate at a Utah university in front of an audience of some 3,000 people, the suspect joked on the same forum about the identity of the killer and the possibility that it was a doppelganger.
It followed the FBI's release of the first blurry photos of the suspect, wearing a cap and sunglasses, on Thursday morning, and a question from a Discord user participating in a chat with Robinson and about 20 other people."Where are you?" he asked. Robinson replied that his"double" (he used the German term "doppelganger") was "causing him trouble." "Tyler killed Charlie!!!" chimed in another user.
The existence of this chat was revealed this Sunday by The New York Times, which obtained the information from one of its members, an old acquaintance of Robinson's from high school who spoke anonymously and said he had not seen the suspect in person for years.
Robinson turned himself in that night after being persuaded by his father after recognizing him in the second batch of images released by investigators. Many loose ends remain about what happened between 12:23 p.m. Wednesday, when Kirk died, and 10:00 p.m. Thursday, when FBI agents dispatched to St. George, a town about 250 miles from the crime scene, arrested the suspect. So the Times report serves to shed some light on the 33 hours it took authorities to track him down after a successful escape from campus.
But the news offers no conclusive clues as to Robinson's motivation. There are still many loose ends in the investigation into a murder that has exposed the ideological divide dividing the United States and resurrected the worst ghosts of its long history of political violence. It is known, however, that he comes from a Mormon family of gun-loving Republican voters, and that authorities have concluded that he underwent a process of"politicization" that distanced him from the conservative environment in which he grew up.
“Leftist ideology”
Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox, who has become the public face of the authorities in this case, gave an interview to ABC News on Sunday morning in which he stated that the suspect"has confessed" to the crime, but"is not cooperating with authorities." "Everyone around him is cooperating, and I think that's very important," he concluded. In another interview on NBC, he added that he had"a clearly leftist ideology." "His friends have confirmed that he frequented a kind of deep, dark web, the Reddit culture and other shadowy places on the internet where this person was deeply involved," he added.
The portrait that has emerged these days in the American media that have spoken to those who knew Robinson paints him as someone intelligent and reserved, a good student with one passion above all others: video games. Along with the weapon he allegedly used to kill Kirk—a key figure in President Trump's electoral success among young voters—the agents found cartridges with anti-fascist inscriptions inspired by the gamer world.
The Utah governor also corroborated the information that the suspect was living with a trans person, which was reported Saturday by the conservative network Fox News, citing anonymous FBI sources."We can confirm that his roommate was a boyfriend [sic] who was transitioning from male to female. That is information the FBI provided yesterday [to the media that published it]."
Cox added that the person is “cooperating with authorities” and “being very helpful.” The governor said on NBC that the person “had no idea; he was in shock when he found out [about Robinson’s alleged involvement].”
At the moment he was shot, Kirk, a staunch defender of gun rights, had just answered the next question. “Do you know how many trans Americans have been involved in mass shootings in the last 10 years?” the viewer asked. Kirk replied: “Too many.” His interlocutor explained that it was only five, and then asked: “Do you know how many mass shootings there have been in the country in the last decade?” “Do you count gang violence or not?” the MAGA activist replied, before being shot and killed at the age of 31.
The question can be framed within the context of the ideological war in the United States surrounding the rights of the trans community, which have been curtailed since Donald Trump's return to the White House. It also fits into a current context. On August 28, in a shooting at a Catholic school in Minneapolis, two children were killed by Robin Westman, who had changed his name, Robert, at age 17 because"he identified as a woman and wanted his name to reflect that identification," according to court documents.
In the hours following the murder, social media was filled with hoaxes claiming the perpetrator was a trans person, and even false perpetrators were named.
Cox also reacted to the Times report in his Sunday round of interviews, which complemented an appearance on CNN. “The only thing we can confirm is that those conversations did happen, and [the other users in the chat] didn’t believe it was him [the killer]. They were jokes until he admitted it was him,” he said.
Those pranks, according to the Times, included a message in which the suspect said he didn't mind if another participant ratted him out, as long as they gave him"a share" of the $100,000 reward offered by the FBI. Afterward, Robinson wrote:"I'm really Charlie Kirk. I wanted to get away from politics, so I faked my death. Now I can live my dream life in Kansas."
Robinson remains in custody without bail in the Utah County Jail in Spanish Fork. His first court date is Tuesday. It has not yet been revealed whether he has an attorney to defend him. Both Cox and Trump have promised to seek the death penalty, which is legal in Utah and 26 other states.
