The initial portrait emerging of the man authorities say killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah is a complicated one.
Tyler James Robinson, 22, was arrested on Thursday after contacting a family friend who then called the sheriff’s office in Washington county, Utah, officials said. Washington county is 260 miles south of Orem, home of Utah Valley University (UVU), where Kirk was killed.
Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, said that person reported that Robinson had at least implied – and potentially confessed – to killing Kirk, a staunch ally of Donald Trump.
A public records database shows Robinson’s family resides in Washington, Utah, where Trump garnered support from 75% of voters in the 2024 presidential election. Robinson’s parents have Republican listed as their party affiliation, said public voter registration information, and they are considered active voters (each cast ballots in the 2024 election that gave Trump a second presidency).
Public records also indicated Robinson registered as a voter in Utah in July 2021 but was considered inactive and did not declare an affiliation to any party when he registered.
Robinson is a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in Washington county, said a statement from the Utah system of higher education.
He briefly attended Utah State University (USU) for one semester in 2021. A USU spokesperson said Robinson took classes for a pre-engineering major and then took a leave of absence for an undisclosed reason.
He received concurrent enrollment credit through Utah Tech University while in high school from 2019 to 2021, the state higher education system’s statement said.
Photos on a social media account associated with Robinson’s mother – deactivated on Friday – appear to show Robinson was the oldest of three boys. That account said Robinson’s mother was a social worker.
Robinson’s family had vacationed together to Mexico in 2023, according to a video reel published on a social media account associated with Tyler’s father.
A neighbor of the Robinson family, 66-year-old Kristin Schwiermann, said she had the impression Tyler was academically “smart”.
She alluded to high scores he received on the college admission test known as the ACT, which Robinson’s mother posted about on social media.
News that Robinson was accused of murdering Kirk “shocked the crap out of me”, she said.
“I didn’t think he would have done this,” Schwiermann said.
Cox told reporters that a family member of Robinson who was interrogated by investigators said Robinson had “become more political in recent years”.
The family member, Cox said, recounted how Robinson had gone over for dinner and mentioned that Kirk was scheduled to speak at UVU. The family member recalled Robinson talking about not liking Kirk and his viewpoints.
CBS News reported being told by multiple federal law enforcement officers that Robinson’s father recognized him in surveillance images released by officials. Robinson admitted that he was the person in the photos, and his father urged him to surrender to investigators, the network reported.
That allegedly prompted Robinson to say he would rather die by suicide than turn himself over to law enforcement. Robinson’s father then called a youth pastor close to the family and ultimately helped Tyler surrender to investigators, CBS reported, citing its sources.
After Robinson’s arrest, Cox said inscriptions on unfired gun casings recovered by investigators of Kirk’s killing contained overt references to the anti-fascist movement. One reportedly read: “Hey fascist! Catch!” Another purportedly read, “Oh, Bella ciao” – a reference to an Italian anti-fascist resistance song. A third reportedly said: “If you read this, you are gay, LMAO.”
Other casing inscriptions have been widely interpreted as references to gaming and online culture. One of those as relayed by Cox was “up arrow, right arrow and three down symbols”, which many have perceived as a reference to a sequence of controller inputs that release a bomb in the Helldivers II video game.
Another engraving reads, “Notices bulges OWO what’s this?”, which the New York Times suggested alludes to a phrase used for trolling in online role-play communities.
Cox said Robinson’s roommate had shown investigators online messages he sent that stated “a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel”.
Other messages also referred to “engraving bullets and a mention of a scope, and the rifle being unique” and that “he had changed outfits” after the shooting.
Authorities said that they had recovered a “bolt-action rifle” suspected of being used to kill Kirk after it was discarded in a wooded area. Cox on Friday said that rifle – with a scope mounted on it – was a Mauser model 98, in .30-06 caliber.
That style of rifle is popular with hunters, according to analysts. Investigators did not immediately say whether they have a theory about how the shooter may have obtained that weapon.
Information on the public records database consulted by the Guardian shows Robinson’s father had previously obtained hunting and fishing licenses from the states of Utah and Alaska.
A local jail official told CNN Robinson was initially being held on counts of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice.