Tyler Robinson appointed the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s shooting, how was he caught

The authorities have arrested the person who suspect shooting and killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Wednesday at an event of the Utah University campus.

Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested at St. George, Utah, on Friday, authorities said and sources told ABC News.

Robinson’s father recognized him as the person wanted by the police after the authorities distributed photographs.

This is what we know about Robinson, how the shooting was carried out and how it was caught.

How Robinson was caught

President Donald Trump initially announced the arrest, declaring in “Fox and Friends” on Friday morning “, I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have it in custody.”

The authorities confirmed the news during a press conference on Friday morning, with the governor of Utah Spencer Cox declaring in the opening comments: “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We have it.”

Cox said that after Robinson’s father acknowledged his son in the distributed photographs, he told Robinson to be delivered. Robinson initially said no, but later changed his mind, authorities said.

Then, the father called a youth shepherd, who is also an officer of the task force of the US sheriffs. The officer advised the father to make Robinson stay in his place. This information was transmitted to the FBI.

Cox thanked Robinson’s family, “who did the right thing.”

During the press conference, Cox said that when the police identified Robinson, they also interviewed Robinson’s fellow, who showed them a message between Robinson and his roommate.

“The content of these messages included messages affiliated with contact with Tyler, indicating the need to recover a rifle of a point of fall, leaving the rifle on a bush,” Cox said.

The messages also referred to engraving bullets and a mention of a scope and the rifle is unique.

The rifle is an older model of imported mauser .30-06 The caliber bolt action rifle wrapped in a towel, told ABC News to ABC News. The location of the firearm seems to coincide with the travel route of the suspect, the fountains said.

The FBI director, Kash Patel, said the police caught Robinson within 33 hours of the shooting and were on stage when the shooting occurred in 16 minutes.

“This is an ongoing investigation, as the governor said, and we will continue working with the state and local authorities to develop the investigation to provide them with the evidence they need for their ongoing prosecutions,” Patel said.

How the shooting was carried out

Cox said Friday that the surveillance video images of the University of Utah Valley reviewed by the researchers showed that Robinson arrived at the campus at 8:29 am et in the morning of the shooting, driving a gray Dodge Challenger.

Robinson wore a smooth brown shirt, light -colored shorts, light -colored shoes and a black hat with a white logo, according to Cox.

The authorities declared that Robinson changed dark clothes on the campus and, after the shooting, returned to the original clothes.

Cox also described what was recorded in the housings found in the scene.

Of the three housings without worrying, one said: “Hello fascist! Catch!” With an arrow symbol pointing up, then to the right, and then three arrows pointing down.

Another housing did not refer “or Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Ciao, Ciao!” Apparently, in reference to the Italian anti -fascist song during World War II and another housing without worrying, read “If you read this, you are Gay Lmao.”

Before being identified, the authorities and a former FBI agent said previously that he believed that the subject was an individual of university age with an apparent competence in the management of a high -power rifle and probably knew the design of the university where the homicide occurred.

During a press conference on Thursday morning, Robert Bohls, a special agent in charge of the FBI Salt City Field Office, said the researchers believe they recovered the weapon used in what Utah’s governor called a “political murder.”

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 visit the University of Utah Valley, according to COX. Robinson and family members discussed why they didn’t like Kirk and his views, and the family member declared that Kirk was “full of hate and propagation of hatred,” Cox said.

The authorities said Robinson was not registered at the University of Utah Valley and lived in Washington County, Utah, with his family.

Robinson is currently enrolled in Dixie Technical College in Utah, a trade school in which he was supposedly working to become an electrician, according to two people who know Robinson but asked not to be identified.

One of the people told ABC News that Robinson was not in class on Kirk shooting day.

Before Dixie, Robinson attended Pine View High School in St. George, graduating in 2021, according to an online graduation video reviewed by ABC News. Then he attended Utah State University during a semester, in 2021, according to a University spokesman.

A classmate who says they know Robinson for years told ABC News that they are “stunned” when listening that Robinson could have carried out this attack, describing him as “friendly” but “a little more reserved”, and added that “they never heard him speak politically.”

The classmate added that they never observed Robinson expressing any “hatred or malice towards other people.”

“I never heard him speak politically,” said the classmate, who emphasized that they were not close friends. “I never heard it talk about weapons.”

Robinson’s human hunting

During a press conference on Thursday night, before identifying Robinson, state and federal officials published a video of the person of interest jumping from the roof of a building on the campus.

Beau Mason, commissioner of the Utah Public Security Department, said the suspect carried “different clothes” that could help in their identification, including Converse Sneakers.

He said that the person seen in the video jumps from the roof left shoe impressions and a palm print.

“We are investing everything we have in this and we will catch this individual,” Mason said at the press conference.

The authorities had received more than 7,000 potential tips and clients and completed about 200 interviews, Cox said.

Bohls said the weapon, a rifle of high power, was discarded in a wooded area near the Utah Valley University (UVU) in OREM, and is being analyzed in an FBI laboratory.

The weapon and recovered cartridges would be taken to the main laboratory of the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, for the most technologically advanced forensic analysis, they told ABC News. The approach is to look for digital footprints and latent DNA, the sources said.

The researchers also collected a shoe impression, a palm impression and forearm impressions for analysis, said Bohls.

Mason said that researchers are also studying “good video images” of the shooter they have used to track their movements before and after filming.

After Thursday’s press conference, the FBI in Salt Lake City launched surveillance images of the person of interest sought in relation to the shooting. The images showed a person who seems to be a white man, who wears all dark clothes, including a dark blouse without long -sleeved straps with what seems to be an image in the front that includes an American flag. The man in the images also wears a dark cap and sunglasses.

The FBI announced that a $ 100,000 reward is being offered to obtain information that leads to the suspect’s capture.

Mason said researchers believe that the suspect arrived at the UVU campus at 11:52 am local time, approximately 28 minutes before Kirk, CEO and co -founder of the conservative Base Turning Point USA organization, received a shot.

Mason said the deadly shot was triggered from a building at a substantial distance where Kirk was talking to a crowd that the authorities estimate that there were about 3,000 people. He did not reveal what construction of the shooter shot.

“We have tracked their movements on the campus, through stairs, to the roof, on the other side of the ceiling to the shot,” Mason said. “After the shooting, we were able to track their movements while moving on the other side of the building, jumped from the building and fled from the campus to a neighborhood.”

He said the researchers combed the neighborhood for the suspect and contacted residents with bell cameras to analyze.

Brarett, a FBI -retired agent and ABC news collaborator, said that evidence researchers have shared so far paint an image of a suspect that planned the shot to the last detail, including the discharge of the possible homicidal weapon along their escape path.

“He probably did that [because] I didn’t want them to see him by carrying a gun, running through a neighborhood or walking through a neighborhood, “Garrett said.

Garrett said that the discovery of Palma’s printing of the murderer can also be useful.

“If you have ever had a complete set of impressions, where you print your entire hand, let’s say she had been in the army or in some aspect of the government or a contractor, they can have them,” Garrett said. “That is a long shot, but they can have them.”

Megan Christie of ABC News, Laura Romero, Mike Levine, Lucien Bruggeman and Tonya Simpson contributed to this report.