Police operatives have arrested a young man suspected of killing the influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah, United States.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox disclosed this to reporters on Friday, September 12, 2025.
“We got him,” Cox said.
The suspect, identified as Tyler Robinson, confessed to a family friend – or “implied that he had committed the murder” to that friend – and that person in turn had contacted the Washington County sheriff’s office on Thursday, Reuters reported.
A family member interviewed by investigators said Robinson had become more political recently and spoke in a disparaging manner about Kirk, Cox told reporters.
Robinson was taken into custody on Thursday night, about 33 hours after Kirk’s murder, FBI Director Kash Patel said at the press conference.
Kirk, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was killed by a single bullet as he spoke onstage at an outdoor amphitheatre at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Previously, U.S. investigators said they had found the bolt-action rifle believed to have been used to kill Kirk and released images of a person of interest.
Investigators spoke to Robinson’s roommate, who showed them comments Robinson had made on Discord, a chat and streaming platform popular with gamers, discussing retrieving a rifle from a drop point and then leaving the rifle in a bush wrapped in a towel.
This matched the description of the gun that authorities recovered after the shooting in a wooded area near campus.
Cox also said ammunition found at the scene had been inscribed.
The messages on the casing included: “What’s this;” “Oh, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao;” “If you read this, you are gay, LMAO;” and “Hey fascist, catch!”
Kirk, a well-connected activist, author and podcast host, helped build support for Trump and the Republican Party among younger voters.
Kirk was the co-founder and president of the conservative student group Turning Point USA and appeared at Utah Valley on Wednesday as part of a planned 15-event “American Comeback Tour” of U.S. college campuses.
His killing stirred outrage and denunciations of political violence from Democrats, Republicans, and foreign governments.
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