President Donald Trump announced the arrest of a suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
The FBI confirmed on Friday morning that the suspect arrested is Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah local.
“Law enforcement sources told Daily Mail that Robinson was taken into custody as the alleged assassin who killed Kirk at a rally at Utah Valley University in Utah on Wednesday,” the Daily Mail reported.
“The alleged killer confessed to his father Matt, who is a a 27-year veteran of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, sources told Daily Mail. His father then contacted authorities and secured his son before he could be taken into custody,” the outlet added.
“His mother, Amber Robinson, works for Intermountain Support Coordination Services, a company contracted by the state of Utah to help disabled people receive care. Robinson was a student at Utah State University on a scholarship, insiders confirmed to Daily Mail. The family’s social media profiles show Robinson, who has two younger brothers, often enjoying family vacations and sharing smiling selfies, including one of his mother celebrating her ‘genius’ son getting into college,” the outlet continued.
“Robinson was taken into custody around 11pm local time in southern Utah on Thursday night. He lives in a $600,000 six-bedroom home in Washington, Utah – about 260 miles south of Kirk’s assassination in Orem. Authorities said at a press conference on Thursday night that Robinson will face the death penalty if convicted,” the Daily Mail continued.
Early on Friday, Trump announced the arrest of a suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
“Somebody who was very close to him turned him in,” the president said, saying it was relayed through “a minister who was involved with law enforcement.”
“I hope he’s going to be found guilty and I hope he gets the death penalty. What he did — Charlie Kirk was the finest person and he didn’t deserve this.”
Trump did not name the suspect. Later this morning, investigators will hold a public update.
Authorities and sources told The Post that the suspect was thought to have fired a single shot from a high place about 200 yards away from the tent where Kirk, 31, was sitting at the university’s Losee Center.
At first, reports said that the suspect was a gunman in jeans, a black shirt, and a black vest sitting on top of a structure east of the school’s library with a long rifle.
WATCH:
Kirk, who co-founded Turning Point USA and has two kids, had just answered a question from someone in the audience regarding mass massacres by transgender individuals at the outdoor gathering on the Orem campus when he was shot once.
The conservative influencer jerked back and seemed to be in pain as he grabbed his neck. A single gunshot went out from the crowd, sending thousands of people into a panic, according to dramatic video from the event.
“I didn’t watch,” Trump told Fox News on Friday of the shockingly graphic videos.
“I heard about it… I would have never made a good doctor, let me put it that way,” the president said. “I mean, I heard enough. I didn’t want to watch it… I didn’t want to remember Charlie that way.”
The manhunt includes officers from at least four different law enforcement agencies, such as the FBI, the Orem Police, the Utah Department of Public Safety, and the Utah Valley University Police.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” President Trump wrote in a mournful post on Truth Social after news of Kirk’s death spread.
He later said he was “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk” in a video posted on the platform.
“Charlie inspired millions. And tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” the president said, adding that Kirk is now a “martyr for truth and freedom.”
“This is a dark moment for America,” Trump added.
A nurse told Laci Williams, a long-time friend and former colleague, that Kirk was sent to a neighboring hospital for emergency surgery after he was shot. Williams then told The Post and later confirmed rumors that he had died.
The activist was most known for his “Prove Me Wrong” debates on college campuses, where anybody from the community could argue with him.
He was shot and killed in the middle of one of those debates for his “American Comeback Tour.”
Kirk leaves behind his wife, former Miss Arizona Erika Frantzve, and two young children.