A bionic arm, a chicken coop and three botched arrests.
As Kash Patel’s reputation as FBI chief hung in the balance following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, the alleged assassin’s father turned him.
On Friday, Donald Trump announced the arrest of the suspect, marking 44 hours since a fatal incident at Utah Valley University on Wednesday claimed the life of Kirk.
In the aftermath, law enforcement initially pursued a man with a bionic arm, as chaotic radio transmissions highlighted. Characters with bionic or prosthetic limbs were notable in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and the 1993 film The Fugitive starring Harrison Ford.
Authorities also focused on a man in a suit, someone searching hospitals for Kirk, and another individual who deleted an anti-Kirk online post.
The investigation started slowly, leading police to raid chicken coops in a desperate search for the elusive suspect.
Ultimately, Tyler Robinson was apprehended, not by Patel’s FBI, but through the efforts of the suspect’s father, who, with the aid of the 22-year-old’s youth minister, persuaded him to surrender.
The arrest was a lucky break in the investigation by law enforcement in Utah, and the FBI after a lackluster few days.
Police pursued multiple dead end leads in the hunt for Charlie Kirk’s assassin before the family of Tyler Robinson, 22, turned him in as a suspect
Kirk was fatally shot while at an event at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah on Wednesday
Investigators initially questioned three people in the case who were all subsequently released.
As their search grew more frantic officials held another press conference late on Thursday night.
On Thursday, Beau Mason, head of Utah’s Department of Public Safety, admitted that authorities had ‘no idea’ about the suspect’s identity or whereabouts.
A few hours later Robinson was handed to them on a plate by his own family.
Patel flew to Utah for the Thursday briefing, but did not take questions or even speak.
Instead, he kept silent as a video of the suspect fleeing the scene was released as they asked the public again for a helping hand in catching the killer.
The former MAGA podcaster and bureau chief has already been on the receiving end of some intense scrutiny over the bungled handling of the probe.
In the hours immediately after Kirk was fatally shot in the neck, Patel was quick to jump on X and say they had a suspect in custody.
Not looking after he was forced to issue another statement saying they had got the wrong person after an interrogation.
Political activist George Zinn was arrested at the scene and dragged away after falsely claiming he was responsible for killing Kirk. He was charged with obstruction.
At a press conference, FBI director Kash Patel (right) remained silent while Utah Governor Spencer Cox urged the public to help identify the suspect
Robinson was apprehended following a manhunt that lasted a day and a half
The New York Times reported that Patel went on an expletive-laden conference call with over 200 FBI personnel on Thursday.
During that call, he is said to have decried the search for the suspect as a ‘Mickey Mouse operation’.
Patel went postal on staff, claiming that they hadn’t given him up to date information and said the local field desk didn’t show him a photo of the suspect for 12 hours.
An anonymous White House source told Reuters that Patel’s botched announcement about the suspect was unprofessional.
The source said ‘his performance is really not acceptable to the White House or the American public’ and will be addressed.
The White House later said Patel had Trump’s backing and described Reuters’ reporting as despicable.
All of this was compounded when it resurfaced that he had fired a ‘legendary’ special agent who was in charge of the Salt Lake City desk in August.
Chatter from police scanners indicates that officers were looking for a man in a suit, another person who was going to hospitals looking for Kirk, another who removed an anti-Kirk online post
George Zinn was arrested at the scene and dragged away after falsely claiming he was responsible for killing Kirk
Jason Christopher Hartley (left) was also mistakenly identified as a person of interest on the killing of Charlie Kirk in the chaotic aftermath
Mehtab Syed was forced out of her role despite former agents in the bureau calling her ‘absolutely the best’.
Syed was fired just six months after she was appointed in February, with sources telling NBC that the reasons for her sacking were not clear.
Associate Deputy Director J. William Rivers, who works for Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino, reportedly told Syed that she wasn’t a good fit for the office.
Syed was offered a lower-level job in the FBI field office in Huntsville, Alabama, but she decided to retire rather than take the demotion following a distinguished career.
She previously held a number of significant FBI roles including head of cyberterrorism and counterterrorism in the Los Angeles field office.
Syed also worked as a section chief in counterintelligence at FBI headquarters, and assistant legal attaché in Pakistan during the height of the U.S. war against Al Qaeda.
The frantic search saw cops follow a number of false leads, even checking chicken coops
Patel listens to a news conference announcing an arrest of a suspect in the Wednesday shooting death of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on September 12
The third suspect, Jason Christopher Hartley, was visited by investigators at his home in Salt Lake City, with Daily Mail on hand to see him being questioned.
Hartley, a veteran, was quickly allowed to return to his wife and two young children, telling this news site after: ‘I did not kill Charlie Kirk.’
The 50-year-old is a registered Democrat and served as a National Guardsman in New York providing security to the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks.
Prior to touching down in Utah on Thursday, Patel was constantly retweeting FBI statements issued by the Salt Like City office.
Instead of being on the ground aiding in the investigation he was seen at the 9/11 memorial service at the World Trade Center in New York City.
Authorities said on Thursday that they also wouldn’t be providing images of the main suspect, now identified as Robinson, as they did not need the public’s help.
Just a few hours later however they shared images of a man in black wearing a patriotic t-shirt, having seemingly decided that they did need a hand.
That was then followed up with a cash reward of $100,000 for any information relating to an arrest, before finally releasing footage of the gunman running from the scene on Thursday night.
Just a few hours later, they had Robinson in cuffs – but only thanks to their picture appeals which they had been so lackadaisical in issuing just hours before.
