Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect Tyler Robinson: What We Know
Following a two-day manhunt, a suspect has been arrested in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Utah, was identified by officials on Friday morning. Officials said he confessed to the shooting to a family member, and they have physical evidence linking him to the murder.
Here’s a guide, which we’ll keep updated, to everything we know about Robinson.
Has Tyler Robinson been charged?
Not yet. On Friday morning NBC News reviewed a probable cause affidavit listing the expected charges:
The suspect arrested in Charlie Kirk’s shooting is expected to be charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice, according to a probable cause affidavit.
All of the offenses are state charges. The aggravated murder count could be charged as a capital felony, which is punishable by the death penalty or life in prison under state law. Utah authorities have three days to file charging documents.
Federal prosecutors are also evaluating possible charges they could bring against Robinson, per CNN. Before Robinson was identified President Trump said he wants Kirk’s killer to get the death penalty. At the press conference announcing that Robinson’s arrest, Utah governor Spencer Cox said the state will “pursue the death penalty” in the case.
Robinson is being held without bail in Utah County Jail on the orders of a state Magistrate Judge Shawn Rice, according to court records obtained by CNN. Robinson is expected to appear in court virtually on Tuesday, after charges are formally filed.
“Assuming all goes as planned and we file charges on Tuesday, Mr. Robinson’s first appearance will be Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. MDT,” said Christopher Ballard, chief of staff at the public information office at Utah County attorney’s office.
When was Robinson arrested?
He was arrested in Washington, Utah at 4 a.m. local time Friday, and was being booked at 7:15 a.m. in Spanish Fork, Utah, according to booking records reviewed by the Washington Post. The records do not say what agency arrested him.
The Utah governor’s office release this mug shot:
How was Robinson apprehended?
Utah governor Spencer Cox announced at a Friday morning press conference that a suspect had been arrested in connection with Kirk’s murder on Wednesday at Utah Valley University and named Robinson. Earlier on Fox & Friends, President Donald Trump announced that a suspect was in custody, but did not name him.
“On the evening of September 11, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend, who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident,” Cox said.
The “family member” was Robinson’s father, and the “family friend” was a youth pastor, according to several outlets. CNN reported:
The father of the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect who was taken into custody identified his son from photos that had been made public, according to a law enforcement official.
The father told his son to turn himself in. He also called a youth pastor to assist. The pastor called the US Marshals, who took the suspect into custody.
Investigators then reviewed surveillance video and identified Robinson arriving on campus at Utah Valley on Wednesday at 8:29 a.m., according to Governor Cox. Kirk was shot at 12:23 p.m. MT while addressing a crowd.
Surveillance video showed the suspect driving a gray Dodge Challenger. A family member confirmed Robinson owned a car of that make and model.
Cox said the footage showed Robinson wearing a plain maroon t-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black cap with a white logo, and light-colored shoes. Robinson was wearing clothing matching that description when investigators approached him in the early morning hours on September 12.
Authorities found a rifle wrapped in a dark towel on Thursday in a wooded area on the edge of campus, according to the governor. It was a Mauser bolt-action rifle with a scope mounted on it.
Cox said investigators also interview Robinson’s roommate, who showed them Discord messages he had exchanged. (The company later disputed this, saying the roommate sent Discord messages to another friend after the shooting, “recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere.”)
The messages showed the phone contact “Tyler” stating “a 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,” according to Cox. In the messages “Tyler” also referred to engraving bullets, having a unique rifle with a scope, and changing outfits.
Cox said authorities believe the suspect acted alone.
“Only one person is responsible, and he’s in custody,” Cox said.
Here’s the full press conference:
Who is Tyler Robinson?
Robinson grew up in Washington, Utah, a suburb of St. George. A spokesperson for the Washington County School District said he was a student there from 2008 to 2021, when he graduated from Pine View High School.
He was a high-achieving student, earning a scholarship to attend Utah State University, according to public records and social media reviewed by CNN. In 2021, Robinson’s mother posted a video of him reading a letter about receiving the scholarship. USU said in a statement that Robinson “briefly attended” the school for one semester in 2021, then took a leave of absence.
“He was a pre-engineering major, so he took courses that would have been part of that major,” said spokesperson Amanda DeRito.
Robinson is currently a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in St. George, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Governor Spencer Cox said Robinson was not a student at the Utah Valley University. The school where Kirk was killed is about a three and a half hour drive from Washington, where Robinson was arrested.
“He was living, and had lived for a long time, with his family in Washington County,” Cox said.
NBC News searched state and national public records associated with Tyler Robinson’s name and date of birth and found no prior criminal record.
What do we know about Robinson’s family?
The have not spoken to the media or been identified by authorities.
The New York Post described Tyler’s father, Matt Robinson, as a “now-retired veteran law enforcement officer,” reporting that he confronted his son “after seeing photos of the killer — with the son saying he would rather kill himself then hand himself in.”
Robinson’s parents “were registered Republicans” according to the Wall Street Journal. Tyler’s uncle told the paper that he recognized him in surveillance footage released by authorities and reached out to his brother:
Clinton Robinson, Tyler’s uncle, said that after authorities released surveillance photos of the shooting suspect, he showed an image to Tyler’s father, Matt Robinson. “I thought it looked like Tyler,” Clinton Robinson said in a text exchange Friday morning with a Wall Street Journal reporter. “Sounds like it was. My day just went to s—.”
“I have no idea why he did this,” he wrote.
The AP summarized information about the family from Robinson’s mother’s social media accounts, which are no longer public:
Robinson has two younger brothers and his parents have been married for about 25 years, according to his mother’s social media posts. The family lives in a suburb of the city of St. George in southern Utah. …
The social media posts indicate his family was active, with photos of vacations to Disneyland, Alaska and St. Kitts and time outdoors spent fishing, zip-lining and target shooting.
Kristin Schwiermann, who lives three doors down from the Robinsons, told the Washington Post that her grandson was at the Utah Valley University event where Charlie Kirk was shot. She was in disbelief when he told her Robinson had been arrested. She said Robinsons used to attend a Mormon church nearby and he seemed well-adjusted:
She said she knew Robinson as “good kid” who was respectful, did not get in trouble and played with his friends. She recalled his parents saying he aced his ACT exam.
“The kid was quiet, smart, had friends, close-knit family in a close-knit neighborhood — who does that?” she wondered aloud from her porch Friday as police and reporters swarmed the block.
Dane Stocking, 22, told the Post that Robinson was part of a group of friends who would play Nintendo Switch video games together during lunch:
“From what I remember, he was a jokester,” he said. Stocking said he was not personally close with Robinson, but said Robinson never struck him as violent or interested in guns, and said he does not recall him ever talking about guns. He also does not recall any conversation about politics.
What was Tyler Robinson’s political affiliation?
Voter registration records show he had no party affiliation and did not vote in the two most recent elections, according to CNN.
During Friday morning’s press conference, Governor Cox said a member of Robinson’s family told investigators that he had become “more political” recently. The person said Robinson recently told him Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU, and they discussed how they did not like Kirk or his views.
Are there any signs of a motive?
Three of the unfired shell casings recovered from the rifle had inscriptions, according to Cox. While they seems to reference opposition to fascism, it’s unclear if they are an expression of the gunman’s ideology or just online jargon and memes.
The Utah governor said the inscription on the fired casing read “notices, bulges, OWO, what’s this?”
The first unfired casing said “Hey fascists! Catch” with an up arrow, a right arrow, and three downward facing arrows, an apparent video-game reference.
The second said “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao.”
The third said, “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.”
As New York’s John Herrman explained, these are all references from online culture and gaming:
Three other inscriptions suggest the suspect, Tyler Robinson, was extremely online. A series of arrows seems to be a reference to the game series Helldivers, in which entering the arrows results in a bomb strike. The remaining two are a little more difficult to interpret. The phrase “Notices bulge, OwO what’s this?” is a reference to an obscure meme making fun of furries and online sexual role-play. It’s hard to read the last message — “If you read this, you are gay lmao” — any more specifically than as a trollish shitpost or an in-joke meant for a specific audience.
“Bella ciao” is refers to an Italian folk song with a “sprawling cultural history,” as the New York Times put it. It became popular as an anti-fascist anthem in Italy after World War II, and is still used as a song of unity or protest. But is also widely used in non-political contexts. It recently became known worldwide due to its use in the Netflix series Money Heist and in video games like Far Cry 6.
On September 11, the Wall Street Journal reported that the ammunition found out the scene was “engraved with expressions of transgender and antifascist ideology,” according to an internal law-enforcement bulletin. Following Cox’s press conference, the paper added a long editor’s note to the piece explaining that the messages actually do not appear to include any transgender references.
https://t.co/uUcGLPObPb pic.twitter.com/MYM4ekswsv
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 12, 2025
The law-enforcement bulletin may have misinterpreted the arrows referencing a move in Helldivers 2 as symbols used by the transgender community.