What We Know About Alleged Charlie Kirk Shooter

Feature Image Courtesy of Utah County Sheriff’s Office

Officials have identified the person believed to have fatally shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. In a press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, said that Robinson was arrested after surveillance footage was analyzed and Robinson’s father reached out to someone who contacted the local Sheriff’s Office.

Robinson, a Utah native, has no criminal history according to state records. He was not a student at Utah Valley University, where the shooting occurred, and only attended Utah State University for one semester in 2021. CNN reported that Robinson was registered to vote with no party affiliation and hadn’t cast a ballot in the two most recent elections.

In an interview with a family member of Robinson, investigators were told that Robinson “had become more political in recent years,” according to Cox. Cox said that at a recent family dinner, Robinson had mentioned Kirk’s upcoming Utah Valley tour stop and “they talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints that he had,” said Cox. “The family member also stated that Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate.”

Cox said that after a family member of Robinson’s recognized him, they then reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed or implied that he carried out the shooting.

There has been much speculation on what the recovered bullet casings had engraved on them after The Wall Street Journal published information from a “bulletin circulated widely among law enforcement officials” that claimed the ammunition was engraved with expressions of “transgender and anti-fascist ideology.” In the press conference, Cox confirmed that the ammunition was engraved but clarified that the statements written were, “notices bulge, OWO, what’s this” on the fired casing, “Hey fascists! Catch!” with an up arrow, a right arrow and three down arrows, “if you read this, you are gay LMAO,” and “Bella Ciao.” “Bella Ciao” is an apparent reference to the Italian song adopted by the anti-fascist resistance during World War II, which is still sung by the Italian left. The “notices bulges” engraving is a phrase used to troll in online role-play communities, and the arrow pattern appears to be the sequence of moves on a controller which please a bomb in the video game “Helldivers,” according to The New York Times.

Kirk, the divisive political commentator, was making a comment about trans mass shooters when he was fatally shot. “Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?” Kirk was asked. “Too many,” he responded. The student then said that there have been five and asked, “Do you know how many mass shooters there have been in America over the last 10 years?” Kirk said, “Counting or not counting gang violence?” and was then struck by the bullet.

Kirk has long been in outspoken opposition to the trans and queer community, gleefully using anti-trans slues, advocating for physical and political violence against trans people, calling them “sick,” saying that “someone should’ve just took care of it the way we used to take care of things in the 1950s and ’60s,” accusing the LGBTQ+ community of grooming, reading a passage from the Bible which advocates for stoning gay people to death, and many more instances compiled by Them.

The trans mass shooter narrative, once again pushed by conservative publications, has become a facet of every shooting in the U.S., as just seen in the narrative built around the Minneapolis school shooter. Despite early reports, there is currently no link between Robinson and the trans community.

When investigators identified Robinson, they interviewed his roommate, who turned over Discord messages that included details about the weapon being wrapped in a towel, a wooded area, and the unique gun setup—all of which helped investigators recover the weapon. Early images released by the FBI show Robinson in a dark hat, dark pants, and a dark shirt with an eagle and an American flag on it. Social media has shown pictures of Robinson with guns dating back to early childhood. Robinson’s family was Mormon in both law enforcement and the military.

There is still not enough information to determine a concrete motive for the assassination.