{"id":132970,"date":"2025-09-12T20:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/132970\/"},"modified":"2025-09-12T20:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:04:11","slug":"charlie-kirk-shooting-suspect-details-of-messages-and-gun-casings-emerge-charlie-kirk-shooting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/132970\/","title":{"rendered":"Charlie Kirk shooting suspect: details of messages and gun casings emerge | Charlie Kirk shooting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The initial portrait emerging of the man authorities say killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk<\/a> in Utah is a complicated one.<\/p>\n

Tyler James Robinson, 22, was arrested on Thursday after contacting a family friend who then called the sheriff\u2019s office in Washington county, Utah<\/a>, officials said. Washington county is 260 miles south of Orem, home of Utah Valley University (UVU), where Kirk was killed.<\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s governor, Spencer Cox, said that person reported that Robinson had at least implied \u2013 and potentially confessed \u2013 to killing Kirk, a staunch ally of Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

A public records database shows Robinson\u2019s family resides in Washington, Utah, where Trump garnered support<\/a> from 75% of voters in the 2024 presidential election. Robinson\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He received concurrent enrollment credit through Utah Tech University while in high school from 2019 to 2021, the state higher education system\u2019s statement said.<\/p>\n

Photos on a social media account associated with Robinson\u2019s mother \u2013 deactivated on Friday \u2013 appear to show Robinson was the oldest of three boys. That account said Robinson\u2019s mother was a social worker.<\/p>\n

Robinson\u2019s family had vacationed together to Mexico in 2023, according to a video reel published on a social media account associated with Tyler\u2019s father.<\/p>\n

A neighbor of the Robinson family, 66-year-old Kristin Schwiermann, said she had the impression Tyler was academically \u201csmart\u201d.<\/p>\n

She alluded to high scores he received on the college admission test known as the ACT, which Robinson\u2019s mother posted about on social media.<\/p>\n

News that Robinson was accused of murdering Kirk \u201cshocked the crap out of me\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think he would have done this,\u201d Schwiermann said.<\/p>\n

Cox told reporters that a family member of Robinson who was interrogated by investigators said Robinson had \u201cbecome more political in recent years\u201d.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In a phone interview Friday, one of Robinson\u2019s high school friends \u2013 who asked to remain anonymous \u2013 said that Robinson was \u201cpretty left on everything\u201d and was \u201cthe only member of his family that was, like, really leftist\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of his family was very hard Republican \u2013 like gun-loving, everything,\u201d the friend said. \u201cHe was really the only one that was on the left.\u201d<\/p>\n

The friend said he was stunned when he saw the news on Friday that Robinson was the suspect in the Kirk case. \u201cI knew he had strong political views,\u201d the friend remarked, \u201cbut I never thought it would even go near that far.\u201d<\/p>\n

CBS News reported<\/a> being told by multiple federal law enforcement officers that Robinson\u2019s father confronted him after recognizing him in surveillance images released by officials Thursday. Robinson admitted that he was the person in the photos, and his father urged him to surrender to investigators, the network reported.<\/p>\n

That allegedly prompted Robinson to say he would rather die by suicide than turn himself over to law enforcement. Robinson\u2019s father then called a youth pastor close to the family and ultimately helped Tyler surrender to investigators, CBS reported, citing its sources.<\/p>\n

After Robinson\u2019s arrest, Cox said inscriptions on unfired gun casings recovered by investigators of Kirk\u2019s killing contained overt references to the anti-fascist movement. One reportedly read: \u201cHey fascist! Catch!\u201d Another purportedly read, \u201cOh, Bella ciao\u201d \u2013 a reference to an Italian anti-fascist resistance song. A third reportedly said: \u201cIf you read this, you are gay, LMAO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other casing inscriptions have been widely interpreted as references to gaming and online culture. One of those as relayed by Cox was \u201cup arrow, right arrow and three down symbols\u201d, which many have perceived as a reference to a sequence of controller inputs that release a bomb in the Helldivers II video game.<\/p>\n

Another engraving reads, \u201cNotices bulges OWO what\u2019s this?\u201d, which the New York Times<\/a> suggested alludes to a phrase used for trolling in online role-play communities.<\/p>\n

Cox said Robinson\u2019s roommate had shown investigators online messages he sent that stated \u201ca 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\u201d.<\/p>\n

Other messages also referred to \u201cengraving bullets and a mention of a scope, and the rifle being unique\u201d and that \u201che had changed outfits\u201d after the shooting.<\/p>\n

Authorities said that they had recovered a \u201cbolt-action rifle\u201d suspected of being used to kill Kirk after it was discarded in a wooded area. Cox on Friday said that rifle \u2013 with a scope mounted on it \u2013 was a Mauser model 98, in .30-06 caliber.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Information on the public records database consulted by the Guardian shows Robinson\u2019s father had previously obtained hunting and fishing licenses from the states of Utah and Alaska.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The initial portrait emerging of the man authorities say killed the conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-132970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}