With the mystery of the identity of the alleged murderer of ultraconservative commentator and Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk, which had the United States on edge, now cleared up, the search for answers is now turning to the family of the suspect, Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah resident who was betrayed by his father.
What argument did he use to convince his son, a very active Mormon in his church, to turn himself in, even though he knew he faced the death penalty? Will he collect the $100,000 reward offered by the FBI? How did the detainee plot, without arousing suspicion, a plan that ended with Kirk being shot in the neck from a distance of about 200 yards? And, above all: what led a young man from a gun-loving family and"convincedly Trumpist," according to his grandmother, to end up killing the youth leader of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement with a hunting rifle, a passion he learned at home?
Perhaps because of the implausibility of Robinson's profile ("he was one of us," said Utah Governor Spencer Cox on Friday), some 33 hours passed—which at times seemed like 33 days in a country facing the worst ghosts of political violence in its history—between the shooting at 12:23 p.m. Wednesday (Rocky Mountain Time; eight more in mainland Spain) and Robinson's arrest around 10:00 p.m. Thursday. The arrest came after Robinson turned himself in at a police station in the quiet town of St. George, in southwestern Utah, where the young man lived. Neighbors described him in the American media after hearing the news of his arrest as"reserved" and "intelligent"; a comic book and video game nerd.
Alerted by the sheriff, the FBI agents, who had focused their investigation around the crime scene, Utah Valley College, covered the 350 kilometers between Orem, the town where Kirk died, and the corner of the Nevada border, an enclave between majestic national parks, where the man they had been desperately searching for was"peacefully" waiting for them. And they did so on the same roads that Robinson had driven on Wednesday on his round trip in a gray Dodge Challenger, headed for the annals of gun violence in the United States.
Three hours earlier, authorities had revealed at a press conference, which began after waiting for the arrival from Washington of the controversial FBI director, Kash Patel, the two photos and the video in which the suspect's father recognized his son.
At that point, a chain of events began, in which there are still a few blind spots. The father tried to convince the boy to turn himself in. He told him that before doing so, he preferred to commit suicide. A religious friend of the family spoke with him and managed to persuade him. And then, an agent with connections in the investigation entered the scene, and he was the one who notified the authorities.
In the video that ultimately led to his capture, Tyler Robinson is seen walking briskly across the rooftop from which he had aimed his old.30-06 Mauser rifle, climbing down a squat building, and disappearing into a wooded area where officers later found the weapon. Robinson left it there, wrapped in a towel, along with the ammunition on which he had inscribed the messages, apparently inspired by the world of video games, which the investigation is counting as evidence that the young man had gone through “a process of radicalization,” as Cox stated on CNN on Friday night. One of them said, in what experts interpret as a reference to the video game Headliners 2, a satire on authoritarianism: “Hey, fascist! CATCH!” three words followed by five arrows. Another quoted verses from Bella Ciao, the anthem of the Italian partisans against Mussolini.
The truth is that the young man, who, like so many of his generation, practically lived on the internet, didn't leave (or at least, no evidence emerged in the first few hours) the typical trail of clues that usually emerge after an episode of gun violence in the United States. He was a good student. He was registered as a voter, but without party affiliation, and everything indicates that he didn't participate in the last presidential election, his first opportunity after coming of age.
There are photos that demonstrate the family's passion for guns, or a video in which he is seen celebrating being awarded a $32,000 scholarship to enroll at Utah State University, which he dropped out of after studying engineering for a semester in 2021. Currently, he is in his third year of something like vocational training as an electrical technician.
The incomplete puzzle that emerges from piecing together all these pieces offers a blurred picture that, while still lacking completeness, doesn't correspond to the one the American far right has been concocting in recent days. This isn't a trans person, as various hoaxes have spread. Even though she may have embraced progressive ideas, as one of her relatives told the FBI, she doesn't seem to fit the archetype of the"radical left" activist Trump has promised to hold responsible for the death of his faithful ally. Nor is there any evidence yet that the"politicization" process Cox spoke of occurred while she was a college student, as the MAGA world, always quick to conclude, is always keen to view higher education institutions as places of Marxist indoctrination.
During his escape, Robinson also left behind prints of his Converse sneakers; their distinctive geometric shapes helped the officers piece together the pieces. In all the images released by authorities during those 33 hours—in two batches, Thursday morning and Thursday afternoon—the pair are clearly visible, as part of an outfit that included jeans, sunglasses, a cap with a white triangle, and a long-sleeved black T-shirt with an American flag and a patriotic bald eagle.
Robinson dressed like this after arriving on campus at 8:29 a.m. Wednesday, about four hours before shooting Kirk, according to security camera footage. It's unclear how he spent the wait. When he completed his mission, he changed into shorts and another T-shirt.
A concealed rifle
In one video, captured by the lensman in a residential neighborhood, he is seen walking toward the university, dragging his right leg in what appears to be a thinly veiled attempt to conceal the bulky rifle. In another released image, Robinson climbs the stairs of a parking garage before reaching the building from which he aimed at Kirk without arousing the suspicions of the activist's private security detail, accustomed to receiving death threats, or the six university police officers present as part of a now-disputed operation.
Shortly afterward, he pulled the trigger, precisely after Kirk answered a question about the epidemic of mass shootings in the United States. The speaker collapsed, and blood began to gush from his neck. The video, viewed some billion times since then, was already circulating on social media when the first FBI agents arrived 16 minutes later, according to Patel's calculations.
It wasn't the best afternoon for the federal agency, which has suffered from the Trump administration's cuts and the purge of prominent high-ranking agents for ideological reasons, as three of them complained to the judge that same day. Its director triumphantly announced on X a few hours after the murder that they had found the culprit. Shortly after, he had to backtrack.
Patel is a MAGA podcaster with no experience in intelligence services, and during this crisis, the first major one since Trump unexpectedly appointed him, he has acted with a mixture of anxiety and inexperience, according to internal testimony collected by The New York Times. He was eager to quickly solve the murder of a leading figure in the extremist and conspiracy universe from which they both come. Patel described Kirk as a “friend” on Thursday.
That setback marked the beginning of the manhunt, launched before Kirk's death at age 31 had been certified. Trump announced the death at 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday on his social media platform, Truth. The US president then ordered all flags on federal buildings across the country to be flown at half-staff until Sunday.
The operation—which included the use of drones, fingerprint experts, and video analysts—initially focused on going door-to-door in nearby neighborhoods, as they believed the culprit couldn't be far away. By then, Robinson was already back home. The FBI also decided not to release images of the suspect, although officials changed their minds and released some footage within a few hours in the hope of encouraging public cooperation.
While agents were receiving tips (about 11,000 in total, according to Patel), Vice President J. D. Vance, another personal friend of Kirk's, traveled to Salt Lake City with his wife, Usha Vance, to offer the White House's condolences to Erika Kirk, widow of the Turning Point youth organization leader and mother of his two children. He also offered his official plane, Air Force 2, to transport the coffin to Scottsdale, a city in the Phoenix metropolitan area (Arizona) where Kirk lived, having grown up on the outskirts of Chicago.
Not only that: Vance helped carry the coffin down the runway to the aircraft. That same night, Trump said he planned to attend the funeral of his ally, who played a key role—with his Christian nationalist, anti-woke, and xenophobic rhetoric—in mobilizing the youth vote in the election that brought the Republican back to power last November. He will also award him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.
Following the arrest, agents from the 20 local, state, and federal agencies involved in the search questioned dozens of people associated with Robinson. A roommate told them how his friend had shown him messages after the shooting in which Robinson talked about, among other things, leaving the gun somewhere and changing his clothes.
A relative, according to authorities, described a conversation with the young man in which he expressed his displeasure at Kirk's upcoming visit to Utah. He added that he believed the MAGA activist's speech was"full of hate" and that he was doing everything he could to "spread it."
While those investigations continued, Robinson awaited transfer to his hometown police station, where reporters from all over the United States would descend the following day in search of answers. Around 2:00 a.m. Friday, he was taken to the Utah County Jail in Spanish Fork, where he awaits his fate with no possibility of bail. Trump broke the news of his arrest on Friday on the Fox News morning show. Governor Cox later confirmed it to the press:"We have him," he said.
State and federal authorities are now vying for the opportunity to prosecute him. Either way, it seems clear Robinson is likely to face a trial in which the prosecutor will seek the death penalty, which is legal in Utah and has been carried out eight times since its reintroduction in 1973. The last was in August 2024, when state authorities executed Taberon Honie, convicted of the murder and rape of a former girlfriend. He was the first inmate executed in Utah in 14 years.
Robinson's next court date will be next Tuesday, when County Attorney Jeff Gray is scheduled to present the charges against him. That day also marks his first court date, which will be virtual.
Hopefully, at least some of the unknowns surrounding him, and especially his motivations, will have been cleared up by then. Among them is how his family managed to convince him to surrender to the authorities, who will do everything possible to kill him.
