By Editor,Will Potter
Copyright dailymail
The shocking assassination of Charlie Kirk — and the sickening footage that ricocheted across social media — has gripped the nation.
Now, with his suspected killer in custody, attention is turning to the twisted motives of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a video-game-obsessed college dropout accused of being consumed by toxic left-wing ideology.
Prosecutors say he confessed in a message to his transgender partner, writing that he pulled the trigger because he had ‘had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred.’
Yet growing up in a Utah suburb, Robinson appeared destined for a bright future: he was raised in a close knit conservative family, was a star student and earned a 4.0 GPA.
Somewhere around the Covid pandemic, however, friends and family say he changed — and investigators believe he was radicalized online.
After being accepted to Utah State University in 2021, he dropped out after just one semester, taking a leave of absence and never returning.
Now officials are trying to understand what happened in the intervening years that led Robinson to a rooftop where he allegedly shot Kirk as he held an outdoor event last week.
On the one-week anniversary of Kirk’s death, officials unveiled a trove of evidence they hope will secure a conviction — from Robinson’s bizarre ties to the transgender ‘furry’ community, to the chilling moment his own parents turned him in.
Here, the Daily Mail unpacks the fateful shooting — and the disturbing profile of the man accused of pulling the trigger:
Who is Tyler Robinson?
The alleged assassin grew up in a sleepy, close-knit community in Washington, Utah, with his parents Matt and Amber and two younger brothers.
The family attended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in his childhood, and locals said they knew Tyler to be an ordinary, quiet boy.
‘I’m shocked, that’s not the kid I knew,’ neighbor Kristin Schwiermann told the LA Times.
She said she knew the Robinson family for years and described them as a ‘close, hardworking and smart’ family who often went on vacations together.
Images from the Robinsons’ social media profiles show the family often going camping and hunting together, and other images show Tyler posing with guns even as a young boy.
It was Tyler’s parents who went on to turn him in as Kirk’s alleged killer after identifying him on FBI pictures last week.
Robinson attended Riverside Elementary, about a half-mile away from the family home, and friends recalled him being a ‘sharp, kind, respectful individual, the type of kid that reminds the teacher that they need to assign homework’.
‘I always thought I’d see him more as a CEO or something, or a businessman, some billionaire by 26, rather than what’s transpired now,’ former classmate Jaida Funk told WKYC.
His mother had also bragged about her son’s top test scores that earned him a scholarship to Utah State University, but he attended for only one semester in 2021. At the time of the shooting, he was a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in St. George, Utah.
But while friends from Robinson’s childhood said that he ‘just got along with everyone and everyone liked him’, investigators say the accused killer took a turn in recent times.
What was his ‘motive’?
Authorities said that when Robinson’s family were questioned after they turned him in, they told investigators that the 22-year-old had ‘become more political in recent years.’
A family member said that he had condemned Kirk at a recent family dinner, and Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said at his first court appearance this week that Robinson told his parents that he hated Kirk.
Asked why he would want to kill the conservative commentator, Robinson told them that ‘there is too much evil and the guy spreads too much hate,’ Gray said.
Text messages between Robinson and his transgender roommate and partner Lance Twiggs revealed at the hearing on Tuesday also offered a glimpse into the alleged killer’s mindset before and after the shooting.
Shortly after Kirk was killed, Robinson messaged Twiggs and told them to ‘drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard.’
Prosecutors say that Robinson had left a note that read: ‘I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.’
‘You weren’t the one who did it right????’ Twiggs responded, to which Robinson said back: ‘I am, I’m sorry.’
Asked why he did it, Robinson said: ‘I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.’
Twiggs then asked how long he had been planning the shooting, to which Robinson said: ‘A bit over a week I believe.’
How the assassination unfolded
Footage of Kirk’s assassination at Utah Valley University on September 10 swept the internet as millions witnessed the conservative influencer get shot in the neck.
In the moments before the fateful shot rang out and sent the huge crowd scrambling for safety, investigators say Robinson perched on a rooftop on the Losee Building around 200 yards away.
Images released by authorities showed spent bullet casings on the rooftop, as an aerial view showed the perch gave the shooter a clear view of Kirk when he was speaking to students under a tent down below.
In the seconds before Kirk was shot, he was answering a question about transgender gun violence, and was preparing to debate a liberal student over the hot-button issue.
Utah Valley University student Hunter Kozak, 29, asked Kirk: ‘Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last ten years?’
Kirk quipped: ‘Too many’, before Kozak said there have been five, adding: ‘Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last ten years?’
‘Counting or not counting gang violence?’ Kirk replied, in what would be his final sentence before a .30-06 caliber round tore through his neck.
Unfired rounds discovered inside Robinson’s rifle were scrawled with far-left slogans, including ‘Hey fascist! Catch!’, as well as lewd references to men dressing up as women and ‘furry’ subculture.
Inside the manhunt and Robinson’s arrest
The shooting sparked an instant manhunt for the shooter as the world reeled from the horrific images spreading through social media.
In the chaos of the moments after Kirk was hit in the neck, elderly bystander George Zinn, 71, was arrested – and later admitted he ‘yelled that he was the shooter to allow the actual suspect to flee’, police say.
Zinn was seen in footage being hauled away as furious witnesses screamed abuse at him, and he yelled back: ‘Shoot me, shoot me.’
He was initially held on obstruction of justice charges, before prosecutors brought additional charges of possession of child sex abuse material days later.
The manhunt for Kirk’s killer stretched for over a day and a half, in which time FBI Director Kash Patel came under scrutiny for his role after he jumped the gun in announcing his bureau had made an arrest.
Patel shared a post hours after the shooting saying that a person had been captured, writing on X: ‘The subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.’
A little more than 90 minutes later, Patel shared a follow-up post saying the ‘subject in custody has been released after an interrogation by law enforcement’ – the second suspect to be improperly accused after Zinn was hours earlier.
In the frantic search for the killer, authorities released surveillance footage to the public showing the suspect running across the roof of a building before jumping down and fleeing.
Soon after, investigators found a rifle used in the shooting in a wooded area near to the building, wrapped in a towel with unspent bullets that had engravings on them.
Officials said that the engravings showed anti-fascist messages, including one referencing the WW2 Italian anti-fascist song Bella Ciao.
One engraving read ‘Hey Fascists, Catch!’ – next to an up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol and three down arrow symbols – another read ‘OwO’, and a third read ‘If You Read This You Are Gay LMAO’.
