(Orem, UTAH) — Authorities have taken into custody the person they suspect of shooting and killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday at a Utah university campus event.
Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody in St. George, Utah, on Friday, authorities said and sources told ABC News.
Robinson’s father recognized him as the person being sought by police after authorities distributed photographs.
Here’s what we know about Robinson, how the shooting was carried out and how he was caught.
How Robinson was caught
President Donald Trump initially announced the arrest, stating on “Fox and Friends” on Friday morning, “I think, with high degree of certainty, we have him in custody.”
Authorities confirmed the news during a press conference on Friday morning, with Utah Gov. Spencer Cox stating in opening remarks, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We got him.”
Cox said that after Robinson’s father recognized his son in the distributed photographs, he told Robinson to turn himself in. Robinson initially said no but later changed his mind, officials said.
The father then called a youth pastor, who is also a U.S. Marshals task force officer. The officer advised the father to have Robinson stay in place. This information was then conveyed to the FBI.
Cox thanked Robinson’s family, “who did the right thing.”
During the press conference, Cox said that when law enforcement identified Robinson, they also interviewed Robinson’s roommate, who showed them a message between Robinson and his roommate.
“The content of these messages included messages affiliated with the contact Tyler, stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush,” Cox said.
The messages also referred to engraving bullets and a mention of a scope and the rifle being unique.
The rifle is an older model imported Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt action rifle wrapped in a towel, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News. The location of the firearm appears to match the suspect’s route of travel, the sources said.
FBI Director Kash Patel said that law enforcement caught Robinson within 33 hours of the shooting and were on scene when the shooting occurred within 16 minutes.
“This is a very much an ongoing investigation, as the governor said, and we will continue to work with state and local authorities to develop the investigation to provide them the evidence they need for their ongoing prosecutions,” Patel said.
How the shooting was carried out
Cox said on Friday that surveillance video footage from Utah Valley University reviewed by investigators showed Robinson arriving on campus at 8:29 a.m. ET on the morning of the shooting, driving a gray Dodge Challenger.
Robinson was wearing a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, light-colored shoes and a black hat with a white logo, according to Cox.
Officials stated that Robinson changed into dark clothing on campus and, after the shooting, changed back into the original clothes.
Cox also described what was engraved on the casings found on the scene.
Of the three unfired casings, one read: “Hey fascist! CATCH!” with an arrow symbol pointing up, then to the right, and then three arrows pointing down.
Another unfired casing read “O Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Ciao, ciao!” seemingly in reference to Italian anti-fascist song during World War II and another unfired casing read “If you read this, you are GAY Lmao.”
Prior to being identified, authorities and a former FBI agent previously said they believed the subject to be a college-aged individual with an apparent proficiency in handling a high-powered rifle and likely knew the layout of the university where the homicide occurred.
During a news conference on Thursday morning, Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Salt Lake City field office, said investigators believe they recovered the weapon used in what the governor of Utah on Wednesday called a “political assassination.”
What we know about Robinson
At the press conference, Cox said Robinson had become “more political in recent years.”
Robinson mentioned during a dinner conversation with a family member that Kirk would be visiting Utah Valley University, according to Cox. Robinson and the family members discussed why they didn’t like Kirk and his viewpoints, and the family member stated Kirk was “full of hate and spreading hate,” Cox said.
Officials said Robinson was not enrolled at Utah Valley University and lived in Washington County, Utah, with his family.
Robinson is currently enrolled at Dixie Technical College in Utah, a trade school where he was purportedly working toward becoming an electrician, according to two people who know Robinson but asked not to be identified.
One of the individuals told ABC News that Robinson was not in class on the day of the Kirk shooting.
Prior to Dixie, Robinson attended Pine View High School in St. George, graduating in 2021, according to an online graduation video reviewed by ABC News. He then attended Utah State University for one semester, in 2021, according to a spokesperson for the university.
A classmate who says they have known Robinson for years told ABC News they are “stunned” to hear Robinson may have carried out this attack, describing him as “friendly” but “a little more reserved,” adding that they “never really heard him talk political.”
The classmate added that they never observed Robinson expressing any outward “hate or malice towards other people.”
“I never heard him talk politically,” said the classmate, who emphasized that they were not close friends. “I never heard him talk about guns.”
The manhunt for Robinson
During a news conference on Thursday evening, prior to identifying Robinson, state and federal officials released video of the person of interest jumping down from the roof of a building on the campus.
Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety, said the suspect was wearing “distinct clothing” that could help in his identification, including Converse sneakers.
He said the person seen in the video jumping from the roof left shoe impressions and a palm print.
“We are investing everything we have into this and we will catch this individual,” Mason said at the news conference.
Authorities had received more than 7,000 tips and leads and completed some 200 interviews, Cox said.
Bohls said the weapon, a high-powered bolt-action rifle, was found discarded in a wooded area near Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, and is being analyzed at an FBI laboratory.
The gun and cartridges recovered were to be flown to the FBI’s main laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for the most technologically advanced forensic analysis, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The focus is to look for any latent fingerprints and DNA, the sources said.
Investigators also collected a footwear impression, a palm print and forearm prints for analysis, Bohls said.
Mason said that investigators are also studying “good video footage” of the shooter that they have used to track his movements before and after the shooting.
Following Thursday’s news conference, the FBI in Salt Lake City released surveillance images of the person of interest wanted in connection with the shooting. The images showed a person who appears to be a white male, wearing all dark clothing, including a dark long-sleeved collarless top with what appears to be an image on the front that includes an American flag. The man in the images is also wearing a dark ball cap and sunglasses.
The FBI announced a $100,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the capture of the suspect.
Mason said investigators believe the suspect arrived at the UVU campus at 11:52 a.m. local time, about 28 minutes before Kirk, the CEO and co-founder of the conservative grassroots organization Turning Point USA, was shot.
Mason said the deadly shot was fired from a building a substantial distance from where Kirk was speaking to a crowd that authorities estimate was about 3,000 people. He did not disclose which building the shooter fired from.
“We have tracked his movements onto the campus, through stairwells, up to the roof, across the roof to the shooting location,” Mason said. “After the shooting, we were able to track his movements as he moved to the other side of the building, jumped off of the building, and fled off of the campus into a neighborhood.”
He said investigators combed the neighborhood for the suspect and contacted residents with doorbell cameras to analyze.
Brad Garrett, a retired FBI agent and an ABC News contributor, said the evidence investigators have shared so far paints a picture of a suspect who planned the shooting down to the last detail, including discarding the possible murder weapon along his escape path.
“He probably did that [because] he didn’t want to be seen carrying a weapon, running through a neighborhood, or walking through a neighborhood,” Garrett said.
Garrett said the discovery of the killer’s palm print can also be helpful.
“If he’s ever had a full set of prints, where you print the entire hand, let’s say he’d been in the military or some aspect of the government or a contractor, they may have those,” Garrett said. “That’s a long shot, but they may have those.”
ABC News’ Megan Christie, Laura Romero, Mike Levine, Lucien Bruggeman and Tonya Simpson contributed to this report.
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