Suspected Charlie Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson allegedly confessed to the slaying in an online chat before he surrendered to police, it has emerged.
‘Hey guys, I have bad news for you all,’ Robinson allegedly wrote in a message on Discord, The Washington Post reports.
‘It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.’
The suspected gunman was arrested late Thursday night and is being held in a Utah jail on suspicion of aggravated murder.
He’ll appear before a court on Tuesday and will likely face capital murder charges that could see him executed by a firing squad.
Robinson allegedly sent his confession to a small group of close friends on Thursday night, before turning himself over to police.
Discord is reportedly working with the FBI and local authorities to support their investigation. They have shared information about his online activity with the investigators.
The platform previously revealed that an internal investigation ‘no evidence that the suspect planned this incident or promoted violence on Discord’.
Tyler Robinson (pictured) was arrested late Thursday night and is currently held in a Utah jail on suspicion of aggravated murder. He is set to appear in court on Tuesday and might face capital murder charges, which could result in execution by firing squad.
Kirk, 31, (pictured in July) was shot dead Wednesday at an event at Utah Valley University
Robinson is accused of using a sniper rifle to fatally shoot Kirk with a single shot to the neck while the MAGA activist was speaking at an event on the Utah Valley University campus. He was captured Thursday following a 33-hour manhunt.
Information about Robinson began to emerge on Friday, painting a picture of a young man from a Republican family in St. George, a highly conservative city approximately four hours south of Orem.
Photos showed the apprentice electrician in his third year, seen posing with firearms and dressed for Halloween in a costume portraying him riding on Trump’s shoulders.
It is alleged that Robinson carried a hatred for Kirk and ascribed to a ‘leftist ideology’ that had grown in recent years.
He lived with a transgender partner who has not been linked to the killing and who is cooperating with police.
Robinson’s family and friends said he spent large amounts of time scrolling the ‘dark corners of the internet,’ Utah Governor Spencer Cox claimed.
Cox added that the suspect had been radicalized ‘in a fairly short amount of time’.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated last week during his event at Utah Valley University
Speculation swirled over markings that Cox said were found on unused bullet casings in the weapon Robinson is believed to have used.
One cartridge bore the message ‘Hey, fascist! Catch!’ while another displayed ‘Bella ciao,’ referring to a World War II-era Italian anti-fascist song that has reportedly been adopted in specific online communities.
Other cartridges were marked with symbols and wording that appeared to be from online gaming culture.
It took 33 hours to arrest Robinson, with police and FBI having detained, then released, two people unconnected to the case.
Investigators then found the alleged murder weapon, a high-powered hunting rifle, in a wooded area near the university and released photos of a young man dressed in a baseball cap and casual clothing.
Late Thursday, officials in Orem released more details about the suspect’s clothing and initial movements after the shooting, pleading with the public to help identify him.
FBI Director Kash Patel said the arrest was finally made at 10pm Thursday. Cox credited assistance from the alleged killer’s family.
The FBI on Thursday released screengrabs of surveillance footage of a person of interest in Charlie Kirk’s assassination during the manhunt
On Monday, Patel confirmed that DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle found near the shooting site matched that of Robinson.
Investigators also have used DNA evidence to link Robinson with a screwdriver recovered from the rooftop where the fatal shot was fired, Patel added.
The FBI director told Fox News that Robinson had written in a note before the shooting that he had an opportunity to take out Kirk and was going to do it.
Investigators were able to recover the note’s contents after it had been destroyed, Patel said, paraphrasing from the note without revealing more details.
Utah has the death penalty for such crimes – a punishment Trump has said he would like imposed.
Authorities said Robinson has not been cooperating with law enforcement.
Meanwhile, tributes to Kirk are continuing across the country.
A line of mourners wrapped around the Kennedy Center in Washington for a vigil on Sunday, and there were moments of silence at several professional sporting events.
Charlie Kirk leaves behind his wife and their two kids, a three-year-old daughter and a 16-month-old son
Kirk co-founded Turning Point USA in 2012 to drive conservative viewpoints among young people, with his natural showmanship making him a go-to spokesman on television networks.
The father-of-two used his audiences on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to build support for conservative talking points, and to spread carefully edited clips of his interactions during debates at his many college events.
