A series of newly published Discord messages believed to be from Tyler Robinson include one confessing his alleged fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The messages, posted by journalist Ken Klippenstein on Substack, also include discussions about the 2020 presidential election and the 2019 impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Newsweek has not independently verified these messages.
Why It Matters
Robinson, 22, was arrested after a manhunt following the assassination of 31-year-old father of two and Turning Point USA founder Kirk. Robinson faces seven charges, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice, and witness tampering. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. One screenshot appears to confirm a previous report of his alleged confession to the murder.
What To Know
The messages were published on Klippenstein’s eponymous Substack on Tuesday, September 16, in a post titled Exclusive: Leaked Messages from Charlie Kirk Assassin.
Kirk died on September 10 during a public Turning Point USA event hosted by the activist at Utah Valley University. Roughly 15 minutes into the event, Kirk was answering a question about transgender mass shooters when he was struck in the neck by a bullet fired from a rooftop, roughly 160 yards away.
The screenshots of Discord messages include messages from the user name zealous_moneky_55095, which is attributed to Robinson. All other user names are redacted.
The first screenshot addresses Kirk’s murder. The first five messages, all from anonymous user/users read, “Charlie Kirk got shot,” “Dead,” “I just saw the video holy sh**,” “Rip I guess,” “Bro didn’t deserve to go out like that sad.” Those messages were sent between 3:17 and 4:40 p.m. on September 10.
The same screenshot then has a message from zealous_moneky_55095, sent at 8:57 p.m. on September 11, which reads: “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all. it was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this. im surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments. thanks for all the good times and laughs, you’ve all been so amazing. thank you all for everything.”
Robinson was turned in overnight Thursday after he allegedly confessed to his father and the family’s priest that he killed Kirk. His father escorted him back to Orem to turn him in to the appropriate authorities.
The Washington Post previously reported that Robinson had appeared to admit responsibility for the shooting two hours prior to his surrender. The outlet did not publish screenshots, but quoted the same message.
In another screenshot, dated August 26, 2025, an anonymous user shares a YouTube link to a video about the video game, Helldivers 2. To this, zealous_moneky_55095 replies, “one step closer to finding the DRG dwarves.”
Two screenshots in Klippenstein’s article show discussions of politics. In the first, dated September 25, 2019, zealous_moneky_55095 said, “an impeachment inquiry has been placed against donald trump, he could get booted out if they find he committed the s*** hes accused of.”
In the second, dated November 3rd, 2020, an anonymous person wrote “@zealous_moneky_55095 who is winning the election u would know.” To which they replied, “biden is in the lead electoral votes wise, but there are still some swing states that hav’nt finished voting, as well as most of the west coast raw votes donald is in the lead by a little over a 1 million votes.” An anonymous user then replies asking “who is probably gonna win.” Zealous_moneky_55095 then replies “i’m not sure,” an anonymous user then replies, “when will we know,” to which zealous_moneky_55095 responds “not until pretty late, but we should have a pretty good idea by the end of the night unless it’s really close or something,” to which then anonymous user replies, “k.”
Klippenstein reportedly spoke to an unnamed childhood friend of Robinson’s for the article. This person said that Robinson was “generally apolitical,” said he was a “simple guy who like playing games,” and said, “he was a really smart guy but super hard to read, stone cold poker face and you could always never be confident assuming anything.”
The unnamed childhood friend also spoke about Robinson’s sexuality and beliefs. The friend said, “Obviously he’s okay with gay and trans people having a right to exist, but also believes in the Second Amendment.”
Messages, allegedly between Robinson and roommate Lance Twiggs, have also been revealed by the prosecution in which Robinson admits to killing Kirk, described hiding his rifle, and detailed his planning in the days before the shooting,
Robinson instructed Twiggs to look under his computer keyboard, where a handwritten note said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” according to court filings.
Twiggs responded in disbelief, and Robinson wrote, “I am, I’m sorry.” He explained that police had mistakenly detained others as he tried to recover his weapon. During the exchange, Robinson justified the shooting as a retaliation against Kirk’s “hatred, discussed hiding the rifle, shared concerns about having left fingerprints, and instructed Twiggs to delete their messages.
Ultimately, he wrote that he intended to surrender to the authorities, and told his roommate, “You are all I worry about love.”
What People Are Saying
Utah Governor Spencer Cox, during a press conference last week: “Social media is a cancer on our society right now, and I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member. Go out and do good in the community.”
FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox News on Monday: “[Robinson’s] family has collectively told investigators that he subscribed to left-wing ideology. He claimed that he had an opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and he was going to do it, because of his hatred for what Charlie stood for.”
President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday: “…if you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right…and when you look at the agitators, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place, that’s the left, that’s not the right.”
What’s Next
It is expected that Robinson will be formally arraigned in court, where the charges against him will be read, and he will be asked to enter a plea.