PROVO, Utah:&nbsp;The 22-year-old Utah man charged with capital murder in the assassination of Charlie Kirk appeared briefly Tuesday before a judge by video from jail.Tyler Robinson at times nodded slightly but mostly stared straight ahead as the judge read the charges against him and appointed an attorney to represent him.Prosecutors brought a murder charge against the man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk and outlined evidence, including a text message confession to his partner and a note left beforehand saying he had the opportunity to kill one of the nation&rsquo;s leading conservative voices &ldquo;and I&rsquo;m going to take it.&rdquo;DNA on the trigger&nbsp;DNA on the trigger of the rifle that killed Kirk also matched that of Tyler Robinson, Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said while outlining the evidence and announcing charges that could result in the death penalty if Robinson is convicted.The prosecutor said Robinson, 22, wrote in one text that he spent more than a week planning the attack on Kirk, a prominent force in politics credited with energizing the Republican youth movement and helping Donald Trump win back the White House in 2024.&ldquo;The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy,&rdquo; Gray said.Kirk was gunned down September 10 while speaking with students at Utah Valley University. Prosecutors allege Robinson shot Kirk in the neck with a bolt-action rifle from the roof of a nearby building on the campus in Orem, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.Robinson 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 Robinson, even after charges were filed, and his family has declined to comment to The Associated Press.&lsquo;Enough of his hatred&rsquo;&nbsp;Authorities have not revealed a clear motive in the shooting, but Gray said that Robinson wrote in a text about Kirk to his partner: &ldquo;I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can&rsquo;t be negotiated out.&rdquo;Robinson also left a note for his partner hidden under a keyboard that said, &ldquo;I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I&rsquo;m going to take it,&rdquo; according to Gray.The prosecutor declined to answer whether Robinson targeted Kirk for his anti-transgender views. Kirk was shot while taking a question that touched on mass shootings, gun violence and transgender people.&ldquo;That is for a jury to decide,&quot; Gray said.Robinson was involved in a romantic relationship with his roommate, who investigators say was transgender, which hasn&#39;t been confirmed. Gray said the partner has been cooperating with investigators.Robinson&#39;s partner appeared shocked in the text exchange after the shooting, according to court documents, asking Robinson &quot;why he did it and how long he&rsquo;d been planning it.&rdquo;Turned left politically&nbsp;While authorities say Robinson hasn&rsquo;t been cooperating with investigators, they say his family and friends have been talking.Robinson&rsquo;s mother told investigators that their son had turned left politically in the last year and became more supportive of gay and transgender rights after dating someone who is transgender, Gray said.Those decisions prompted several conversations in the household, especially between Robinson and his father. They had different political views and Robinson told his partner in a text that his dad had become a &ldquo;diehard MAGA&rdquo; since Trump was elected.Robinson&rsquo;s mother recognized him when authorities released a picture of the suspect and his parents confronted him, at which time Robinson said he wanted to kill himself, Gray said.The family persuaded him to meet with a family friend who is a retired sheriff&rsquo;s deputy, who persuaded Robinson to turn himself in, the prosecutor said.Robinson was arrested late Thursday near St. George, the southern Utah community where he grew up, about 240 miles (390 kilometers) southwest of where the shooting happened.No timestampsIn a text exchange with his partner released by authorities, Robinson wrote: &ldquo;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.&rdquo;Then he wrote: &ldquo;Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven&rsquo;t seen anything about them finding it.&rdquo; After that, he sent: &ldquo;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&rsquo;t wanna chance it.&rdquo;He also was worried about losing his grandfather&rsquo;s rifle and mentioned several times in the texts that he wished he had picked it up, according to the texts shared in court documents, which did not have timestamps. It was unclear how long after the shooting Robinson was texting.&ldquo;To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,&rdquo; Robinson wrote in another text to his partner.Prosecutor says Robinson told partner to delete texts.Robinson discarded the rifle and clothing and asked his roommate to conceal evidence, Gray said.Robinson 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 also was charged with witness tampering because he had directed his partner to delete their text messages and told his partner to stay silent if questioned by police, Gray said.&lsquo;Anyone and everyone&rsquo;Kash Patel says investigators will look at everyone.FBI Director Kash Patel said Tuesday that agents are looking at &ldquo;anyone and everyone&rdquo; who was involved in a gaming chatroom on the social media platform Discord with Robinson. The chatroom involved &ldquo;a lot more&rdquo; than 20 people, he said during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington.&ldquo;We are investigating Charlie&rsquo;s assassination fully and completely and running out every lead related to any allegation of broader violence,&rdquo; 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 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&rsquo;s political beliefs.Gray declined to say whether Robinson&rsquo;s partner could face charges or whether anyone else might face charges.

Americas

Tyler Robinson, 22, was charged with capital murder in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, with evidence including a text confession, DNA, and political motives potentially linked to Kirk’s views.

Suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing charged with aggravated murder 

Reuters

PROVO: The suspect accused of assassinating right-wing activist Charlie Kirk in Utah wrote a text message before the shooting that he planned to kill Kirk, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Monday.&nbsp;In an appearance on Fox News&#39; &quot;Fox &amp; Friends,&quot; Patel said investigators believe Tyler Robinson also wrote a physical note saying he had the &quot;opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk&quot; and would do so. The note was destroyed, Patel said, but investigators have collected forensic evidence that it had existed and confirmed its contents through interviews.&nbsp;Patel did not say who had received the text message or whether anyone had seen the written note before the attack.&nbsp;Investigators have not publicly identified a motive. Law enforcement authorities have said they believe Robinson acted alone when he shot Kirk, but are investigating whether anyone else had a role in plotting the killing.&nbsp;Separately, the Washington Post reported on Monday that Robinson had sent a message via the online platform Discord to friends, apparently confessing to the crime on Thursday night, shortly before he was arrested.&nbsp;&quot;It was me at UVU yesterday. I&#39;m sorry for all of this,&quot; read a message from the account belonging to Robinson, the newspaper reported, citing two people familiar with the chat as well as screenshots it had obtained. Kirk, an influential ally of U.S. President Donald Trump who co-founded the leading conservative student group Turning Point USA, was killed by a single rifle shot last Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles south (65 km) of Salt Lake City.&nbsp;Court hearing by videoRobinson, 22, is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday, around the same time that he makes an initial court appearance by video from his jail cell.&nbsp;Patel told Fox News that DNA matching the suspect&#39;s was found on a towel that was wrapped around the rifle believed to be the murder weapon and on a screwdriver found on the rooftop that served as the shooter&#39;s sniper perch.&nbsp;Robinson has not cooperated with authorities, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said on Sunday. Still, investigators have been interviewing his friends and family in an effort to determine the motive for the shooting.&nbsp;The killing has shaken a country already gripped by a spike in political violence, fueled by deepening polarization between the right and the left.&nbsp;Both sides have universally condemned Kirk&#39;s slaying as an indefensible act of political violence, though partisan differences have emerged over the framing of that message.&nbsp;Some Republicans, including Trump, have blamed liberal groups for Kirk&#39;s murder despite a lack of evidence. At the same time, Democrats have noted that left-wing figures have also been the targets of political violence in recent years.&nbsp;The left and right also disagree over Kirk&#39;s legacy and how he should be remembered.&nbsp;Legacy dividedKirk&#39;s supporters cast him as an influential and charismatic figure who galvanized support for Trump among younger voters in 2024, and the Republican president has honored Kirk by ordering flags flown at half-staff on public buildings.&nbsp;Civil rights advocates and liberals have criticized Kirk as a divisive figure who embraced Trump&#39;s unsubstantiated claims of a stolen election in 2020 and has marginalized Blacks, women, the LGBT community, Muslims, and immigrants with derogatory rhetoric.&nbsp;In an appearance on Kirk&#39;s eponymous podcast on Monday, Vice President JD Vance said the &quot;incredibly destructive movement of left-wing extremism&quot; had helped lead to Kirk&#39;s killing.&nbsp;While Robinson was raised in a Mormon household by religious parents in a deeply conservative region of the state, &quot;his ideology was very different than his family,&quot; Cox said on Sunday on NBC&#39;s &quot;Meet the Press&quot; program, without going into specifics.&nbsp;State records show Robinson had registered to vote without choosing a party affiliation and did not vote in the 2024 presidential election. However, a relative told police that Robinson had become more politically active and had expressed a dislike for Kirk in a recent conversation.&nbsp;House Speaker Mike Johnson and three other top members of the House Republican leadership held a brief vigil on Monday for Kirk, attended by dozens of lawmakers, friends, and supporters in Statuary Hall of the U.S. Capitol.&nbsp;Back in Utah, at the scene of Kirk&#39;s assassination, scores of mourners have flocked to makeshift memorials in recent days to leave flowers and handwritten notes, and to inscribe messages in chalk on campus sidewalks, many of them Bible verses.&nbsp;Dally Bronson, 22, a sheriff&#39;s dispatcher from neighboring Wasatch County who was on duty at the time Kirk was shot, said that as a devout Christian, she felt torn about what justice should look like.&nbsp;Describing herself as an admirer of Kirk, Bronson said she had been praying for both him and his accused killer.&nbsp;&quot;By all accounts, (Robinson) was a good kid until recently, when something went terribly wrong,&quot; she said, speaking through tears. Kirk&#39;s &quot;killing isn&#39;t about one political side or the other - it&#39;s about good and evil. The shooter encountered a darkness online; he went into some black hole on the internet, and it&#39;s something people our age fall into.&quot;

Suspect Tyler Robinson planned and confessed to killing activist Charlie Kirk; FBI cites evidence and messages, motive still under investigation.

Articles tagged with "Tyler Robinson,"

Suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing charged with aggravated murder

Suspected gunman threatened Kirk, tied to scene by DNA: FBI