Prosecutors brought a murder charge on Tuesday against the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk and outlined evidence including a text message confession to his partner and a note left beforehand that said he had the opportunity to kill one of the nation’s leading conservative voices “and I’m going to take it.”
The aggravated murder charge means 22-year-old Tyler Robinson could face the death penalty if convicted of killing Kirk last week at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy,” Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said in announcing the charges.
Kirk was gunned down on Sept. 10 as he spoke with students and died soon after. Prosecutors allege the gunman shot Kirk in the neck with a bolt-action rifle from the roof of a nearby campus building.
A Utah Valley University police officer was watching the university campus crowd from an “elevated position” and identified the roof of the Losee Center as a potential position for a shooter, Gray said. The officer found evidence on the roof immediately, he said, and spurred officers to direct their attention to surveillance video leading to the roof.
Gray said the suspect discarded the rifle and clothing and asked his roommate to conceal evidence. The gunman left a note under a keyboard saying he planned to kill Kirk and confessed after the shooting, documents show.
The suspect also was charged with felony discharge of a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison, and obstructing justice, punishable by up to 15 years in prison. He was scheduled to appear on camera for a virtual court hearing Tuesday afternoon.
There was no attorney listed in the Utah online court docket for the suspect, even after charges were filed, and his family has declined to comment to The Associated Press.
The gunman appears to have stayed in the area after shooting Kirk and ditching his rifle, authorities said.
Text messages shared with a roommate
In a text exchange with his roommate released by authorities, the gunman wrote, “I had planned to grab my rifle from my drop point shortly after, but most of that side of town got locked down. Its quiet, almost enough to get out, but theres one vehicle lingering.”
Then he wrote: “Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it.” And after that, he sent: “I can get close to it but there is a squad car parked right by it. I think they already swept that spot, but I don’t wanna chance it.”
The texts shared in court documents do not have timestamps, and it’s unclear how long after the shooting the gunman was texting.
The suspect was arrested late Thursday near St. George, the southern Utah community where he grew up.
Investigators have spoken to Robinson’s relatives and carried out a search warrant at his family’s home in Washington, Utah, about 240 miles (390 kilometers) southwest of where the shooting happened.
Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics, became a confidant of President Donald Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations. He brought young, conservative evangelical Christians into politics. His shooting raised fears about increasing political violence in a deeply polarized United States.
While authorities say the suspect hasn’t been cooperating with investigators, they say his family and friends have been talking. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said over the weekend that those who know the suspect say his politics shifted left in recent years and he spent a lot of time in the “dark corners of the internet.”
FBI Director Kash Patel said agents were looking at “anyone and everyone” who was involved in a gaming chatroom on the social media platform Discord with the suspect. The chatroom involved “a lot more” than 20 people, Patel said Tuesday during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.
“We are investigating Charlie’s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence,” Patel said in response to a question about whether the Kirk shooting was being treated as part of a broader trend of violence against religious groups.
The search for a motive
Cox and Patel have described the gunman’s political radicalization online in the “dark corners of the internet.” Prosecutors at Tuesday’s press conference, however, did not provide evidence of that, saying instead that the suspect’s parents described him as moving left politically and “becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.”
Cox said the suspect’s romantic partner was transgender, which some politicians have pointed to as a sign the suspect was targeting Kirk for his anti-transgender views. But authorities have not said whether that played a role. Kirk was shot while taking a question that touched on mass shootings, gun violence and transgender people.
Gray declined to answer a question about whether transgender issues played a role in the motive behind Kirk’s shooting. He pointed to the charging documents, saying they summed up those points.
The charges against the gunman
The charges filed Tuesday carry two enhancements including committing several of the crimes in front of or close to children and carrying out violence based on the subject’s political beliefs.
Gray declined to say whether the suspect’s roommate could face charges or whether anyone else might face charges. He also declined to say whether the suspect was cooperating or whether his parents or roommate had continued to cooperate.
In the days since Kirk’s assassination, Americans have found themselves facing questions about rising political violence, the deep divisions that brought the nation here and whether anything can change.
Despite calls for greater civility, some who opposed Kirk’s provocative statements about gender, race and politics criticized him after his death. Many Republicans have led the push to punish anyone they believe dishonored him, causing both public and private workers to lose their jobs or face other consequences at work.
Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.