A young Utah man has been arrested for the shooting death of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk after a family member and a friend “helped to deliver him into the custody of law enforcement” late Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox said.
The arrest of Tyler James Robinson, 22, a resident of Washington City in southern Utah near St. George, ended a 33-hour search for the alleged shooter in the high-profile killing that has captured the nation’s attention.
“We got him,” Cox said as a news conference began Friday morning.
The governor said the friend and family of Robinson, who assisted law enforcement, “did the right thing.” Robinson is currently being held in the Utah County jail.
Shortly before that, President Donald Trump had posted on social media announcing the arrest, which documents show happened early Friday.
(Brooke Larsen | The Salt Lake Tribune) Police are stationed outside a house where Tyler Robinson reportedly lives in Washington City, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. Robinson was arrested Friday as a suspect in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk in Orem on Wednesday.
The news conference Friday and a probable cause statement filed in Utah County provided new details about the attack on Kirk, 31, who was fatally shot Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University.
The Utah County attorney’s office will lead the prosecution of Robinson “from a Utah standpoint,” Utah Attorney General Derek Brown said in an interview Friday.
[Read more: Interactive timeline of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University]
Brown said his office is handling the coordination between local, state and federal officials and that he expects charges in the case to be filed in the next 48 to 72 hours.
Cox had said on Thursday that authorities were already preparing the necessary paperwork to pursue the death penalty. But Brown added Friday that, with Robinson only recently taken into custody and facts still being determined, it’s not yet clear whether prosecutors will.
Discord messages laid out plan
A roommate of Robinson’s showed law enforcement messages that the two had exchanged on the messaging app Discord, Cox said during the news conference.
Robinson’s messages were “stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving a rifle in a bush,” Cox said. “The messages also referred to engraving bullets, and a mention of a scope and the rifle being unique.”
Law enforcement has previously said they collected a rifle, found wrapped in a towel, and bullet casings from an area with trees near UVU’s campus after the shooting. Cox said Friday the gun was a Mauser Model 98, .30-06 caliber, bolt-action rifle with a scope mounted on top.
“I know there has been speculation as well as to the writing on those casings, those bullet casings,” Cox said.
(Chris Samuels | The Salt Lake Tribune) Gov. Spencer Cox makes remarks during a news conference announcing an arrest of a suspect in the Wednesday shooting death of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.
Police found one fired bullet casing and three unfired casings that were inscribed with different phrases, including apparent references to internet memes.
The fired casing, which was found on the roof of the Losee Center, where authorities said the shot was fired from, was engraved with the words “Notices Buldge OWO what’s this?” according to the probable cause statement.
The three unfired casings, found with the rifle, were inscribed with: “hey fascist! CATCH!” with arrow symbols after it; “If you read This, you are GAY Lmao”; and “O Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Ciao, ciao!”
Cox didn’t elaborate on the meanings behind the statements when asked by reporters during the news conference. He responded: “I will leave that up to you to interpret what those engravings mean.”
As for the casing mentioning “fascist,” he said, “I think that speaks for itself.”
Clothing, gait helped identify Robinson
Police say they also identified Robinson by what he was wearing. Initially, camera footage from UVU’s campus showed the suspected shooter in a maroon shirt and shorts.
The probable cause affidavit also notes a “distinctive gait” and slower pace, with a stiff right leg and apparently restricted knee movement. But the “notable limp” was gone as he ran across the Losee Center roof, it adds.
Cox said Robinson allegedly changed into dark clothing while on that roof. In the same minute as the shot was fired, Robinson suddenly stood and sprinted across the roof again, the probable cause affidavit says.
The suspected shooter then jumped off the building and fled campus, video footage has shown.
Cox said Robinson then drove south toward Washington City, where he and his family have lived for years. When he was later taken into custody, he was wearing a maroon shirt that seemed to match the one earlier caught on camera.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
The Discord messages, Cox said, also “mentioned that he had changed outfits.”
“Through some process, the family came to know this happened,” he added, and initially contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
The probable cause affidavit indicated Robinson’s family reached out to a family friend who then contacted the sheriff’s office with “information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident.”
FBI Director Kash Patel, who arrived in Utah on Thursday, celebrated the arrest at the Friday news conference.
“The suspect was apprehended in a historic time period,” he said.
(Loren Elliott | The New York Times) FBI Director Kash Patel, right, and Gov. Spencer Cox walk to a news conference announcing the arrest of a suspect in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Friday morning, Sept. 12, 2025. The authorities identified him as Tyler Robinson and said that he had made statements to relatives suggesting he had committed the crime.
Before Robinson’s Friday arrest, Utah activist George Zinn, 71, had been taken into custody Wednesday, shortly after the shooting. Police say that was on suspicion of obstruction of justice. He was later released.
“When they started interrogating him, they could tell it wasn’t him” who fired the gun, UVU spokesperson Scott Trotter previously said.
A second man was also briefly detained and then released. Law enforcement publicly identified him, and his parents said Zachariah Qureshi has been facing threats since, despite not being involved in the attack.
At the Friday news conference, Cox said he had hoped the shooting suspect was not going to be someone from Utah.
“I was praying that if this had to happen here, that it wouldn’t be one of us, that somebody drove from another state, that somebody came from another country,” he said, “... just because I thought it would make it easier on us to say we don’t do that here.”
Cox was swift to call the attack on Kirk a “political assassination” during his first news conference appearance Wednesday.
“I don’t want to get too preachy, but I think it’s important that we understand with eyes wide open what’s happening in our country today,” Cox added Friday.
He said it’s a tragic death, “but it’s also so much bigger than an attack on an individual. It’s an attack on all of us. It’s an attack on the American experiment.”
Who is Robinson?
Based on voter records, Robinson had not declared a party affiliation, but both of his parents are registered Republicans.
A family member told investigators Robinson had become more political and recently talked with another relative about Kirk’s UVU visit and “why they didn’t like him,” according to the probable cause affidavit.
Robinson’s relative also told investigators that “Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate,” the affidavit reads.
Kristin Schwiermann, who lives three doors down from the family, said Robinson was a good, fun, loving kid.
She “wouldn’t have even guessed” it was him and couldn’t tell from the pictures.
“It shocks me, because he ... carried himself like he knew who he was, and he didn’t act anything like I would think somebody like that would act,” she said.
“I know they have heard things at family gatherings of little ticks here and there,” Schwiermann added. “I don’t hate them, and I don’t hate Tyler. And it’s hard, it’s really been rough on my heart.”
Robinson wasn’t and has never been a student at UVU, where classes will resume Wednesday. But he has attended other universities in Utah.
[Read more: What we know so far about Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s shooting death]
He is currently a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College in St. George, which was confirmed by the Utah System of Higher Education, which oversees all public universities and colleges in the state.
“At this point, we’re just doing everything we can to make sure that campus is a safe place and students still feel comfortable and can continue to learn and take advantage of what we do here at Dixie Tech,” said Jordan Rushton, president of the college, on Friday.
The college has asked students, faculty and staff “to be vigilant and speak up if they see something strange,” he added.
Ryland Pew, a first-year student at the school, told The Tribune he feels safe on campus but also “a little weird.”
“It kind of made me feel a little sick that someone that lived down here in Washington went up to UVU and just shot Charlie,” he said. “It really shook me up. I didn’t think anyone from Utah would ever do that in my entire life.”
A statement from USHE said Robinson also received concurrent enrollment credit through Utah Tech University, also in St. George, while in high school.
He is expected to make an initial appearance in 4th District Court in Provo remotely on Tuesday afternoon, a state court spokesperson indicated.