Suspected killer of Charlie Kirk in police custody

A 22-year-old man has been arrested in Utah in connection with the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.
Police launched a 33-hour manhunt to capture the young man, Tyler Robinson. He was finally taken into custody on Thursday night. The operation ended after his father convinced him to surrender to police.

Conservative activist Charlie Kirk has been in the news since he was shot and killed on the campus of the University of Utah. Charlie Kirk was shot at an event at the University of Utah on Wednesday. Since then, a manhunt has been launched to catch his attacker.

Many influential people in the country, including the US president, have expressed their "sadness and anger" over his death. How did Charlie Kirk become so important and why was he killed?

Mr. Kirk was an influential ally of US President Donald Trump. After his death, Donald Trump released a video message saying he was "saddened and outraged by this brutal murder."

He later announced that he would award Charlie Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. Charlie Kirk was one of the first people US Vice President J.D. Vance called before entering politics.

Hours after Mr. Kirk's death, US Vice President J.D. Vance sent a message about him. He wrote, "(Kirk) introduced me to some of the people running the (Senate) campaign and also to Donald Trump Jr." Mr. Vance noted, "Don spoke to me on the phone because Charlie said he would."

Charlie Kirk never ran for office or held any public office. He rose from an unknown activist in suburban Chicago to become the standard-bearer of Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" mega-movement. Kirk was a bridge to President Trump for young Republicans. Trump credited Kirk and his organization with his victory in 2024.

Police said a man who also works as a courthouse security officer called U.S. marshals. Law enforcement officers then arrested a suspect named Tyler Robinson around midnight on Thursday. Investigators said at a news conference Friday that the suspect confessed to his father. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said surveillance footage showed Tyler Robinson arriving on the campus of Utah Valley University about four hours before the shooting.

The governor told reporters that when he was arrested, he was wearing clothing similar to the one seen on CCTV at the scene of the shooting.

Robinson's family members also mentioned a recent incident, Mr. Cox said. In which he mentioned that Kirk was coming to Utah and that he was "spreading hate."

Cox said investigators also spoke with one of the suspect's roommates, who showed them messages sent by an account called "Tyler" on the messaging app Discord.

The messages described collecting a rifle from "a drop point" and leaving it wrapped in a towel in a bush.

The FBI said on Thursday that it had found the suspected weapon - an imported Mauser bolt-action rifle - wrapped in a cloth in a forest near the campus.

A BBC review of public records shows that Robinson had previously registered as an unregistered or nonpartisan voter in the state of Utah.

According to records, the suspect's father, Matthew Carl Robinson, and the suspect's mother, Amber Denise Robinson, are registered Republicans.

According to the BBC's US partner CBS News, voting records show that he did not vote in the last two presidential elections and was not old enough to vote in 2020.

The suspect lives in St. George, Utah, near Zion National Park. It is about 250 miles, or 400 kilometers, southwest of the campus where Kirk was shot.

A Utah Valley University spokesman told the BBC that Robinson is a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in southwestern Utah.

Social media accounts show that Robinson's father runs a kitchen countertop and cabinet installation business, while his mother is a social worker.

Born in a Chicago suburb in 1993, Kirk first became involved in conservative politics. At age 18, he wrote an op-ed for the right-wing Breitbart News, accusing schools of spreading "propaganda." Kirk was then noticed by Tea Party activist and businessman Bill Montgomery, who brought Kirk under his wing.

In 2012, in the midst of Barack Obama's presidency, the pair founded a group called Turning Point USA (TPUSA), which began monitoring conservative activities on college campuses. Charlie Kirk quickly spread his influence on social media.

By tapping into online media, the group spread a "stylishly packaged" conservative message to young people. This led to Mr. Kirk speaking at the Republican National Convention in 2016, at the age of 22.

Kirk, who had worked with other Republican candidates in the past, was a