Accused sniper jailed in Charlie Kirk killing awaits formal charges in Utah

The Utah trade school student jailed on suspicion of fatally shooting conservative activist Charlie Kirk faces formal charges next week, according to the governor, from an act of violence widely seen as a foreboding inflection point in US politics.

Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested on Thursday night after relatives and a family friend alerted authorities that he had implicated himself in the crime, Governor Spencer Cox said on Friday, opening a press conference with the words, "We got him".

The arrest capped a 33-hour manhunt for the lone suspect in Wednesday's killing, which President Donald Trump has called a "heinous assassination".


Kirk, cofounder of the conservative student group Turning Point USA and a staunch Trump ally, was gunned down by a single rifle shot fired from a rooftop during an outdoor event attended by 3,000 people at Utah Valley University in Orem, about 40 miles south (65 km) of Salt Lake City. The sniper made his getaway in the ensuing pandemonium, captured in graphic detail in video clips that circulated widely on the internet and television news reports.

A bolt-action rifle believed to be the murder weapon was found nearby, and police released images from surveillance cameras showing a "person of interest" wearing dark clothing and sunglasses. A break in the case came when a relative and a family friend alerted the local sheriff's office that he had "confessed to them or implied that he had committed" the murder, Cox said.

"I want to thank the family members of Tyler Robinson, who did the right thing in this case and were able to bring him into law enforcement," the governor said. Security camera footage and evidence gathered from the suspect's profile on the chat and streaming platform Discord also helped investigators link him to the crime, Cox said.

Robinson, a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship programme at Dixie Technical College, part of Utah's public university system, was taken into custody at his parents' house, about 420 km southwest of the crime scene. Investigators on Friday collected additional forensic evidence from Robinson's apartment in St. George, about 8 km from his parents' home near the Arizona border.