A minute and 41 seconds.
That’s how long the phone call was that led to the arrest of suspected Charlie Kirk shooter Tyler James Robinson.
Robinson, 22, feared mounting pressure from law enforcement would lead to a SWAT raid on his parents’ home, Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby said Wednesday.
“He was truly fearful of being shot by law enforcement,” Brooksby said during a news conference.
Brooksby said he got the phone call from a friend and former Washington County Sheriff’s detective, who retired about three years ago, about 8 p.m. Thursday.
“I could tell his voice was kind of shaky,” Brooksby recalled, “so my first thought is, ‘Who is he going to tell me that died.’ … “I couldn’t fathom what was going to come out of his mouth,” Brooksby said.
Brooksby said the retired detective, who is a member of the Robinson family’s Latter-day Saint congregation, told him he knew who Kirk’s shooter was, and that he was working with the family to get Robinson to turn himself in voluntarily.
Until that point, the sheriff added, there was no clue the suspect in the Kirk murder was in the area. When Brooksby learned the suspect was a “homegrown Washington County boy” who attended Pine View High School — the same school he had attended about 30 years ago — he said there was a “double-shock factor.” The fact that Robinson chose to go home rather than flee only added to his surprise, the sheriff added.
The retired detective told the sheriff that Robinson wanted some concessions before he turned himself in. Brooksby said the negotiation with Robinson was to make the surrender “as delicate and as soft as possible.”
As soon as that phone call ended, Brooksby said, he called Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith to tell him the shooter was in the process of surrendering and he needed to send the lead investigators to Washington County.
Waiting for investigators
(Chris Caldwell | Special to The Tribune) The home of Tyler Robinson, who was named by officials on Friday accused in the shooting death of Charlie Kirk in Washington City, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025.
Within the hour, about 9 p.m., Brooksby said the former detective, Robinson and his parents arrived in the retired officer’s car, and were taken to an interview room. The sheriff described Robinson as “cooperative, somber, quiet” as he waited for lead investigators in the agency’s interrogation room with his parents.
“He was sitting on a very comfortable couch with a water bottle in his hand, and not restrained,” Brooksby said. “That’s part of the job we do on a regular basis, trying to make people comfortable so they are relaxed and not bombard them with negativity or a hammer fist or storm trooper-type approach.”
Since his office is merely assisting the FBI, state and Utah County investigators, Brooksby added, his detectives did not interview or communicate with the suspect, other than to inform him and his parents that they were in a holding pattern waiting for the lead investigators. Asked about the interaction between the Robinsons and their son, the sheriff declined to comment.
At about 2 a.m., Brooksby said federal and state investigators arrived, took custody of Robinson and left to convey the suspect back to Utah County. Asked about the leniency granted the suspect, the sheriff defended the concessions.
“If at the end of the day, we accomplish him surrendering peacefully on his own,” he said. “I’m going to make some concessions to make that happen.”
Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, on Sept. 10 as the 31-year-old answered a student’s question on the first stop of his “American Comeback Tour” at Utah Valley University.
The search for the suspected shooter ended some 260 miles from where Kirk was killed. Robinson’s parents recognized their son from the suspect photos released by the FBI, according to court records. Robinson’s father eventually spoke to his son by phone, the charging documents state.
In that conversation, according to court records, Robinson implied that he planned to die by suicide, but his parents convinced him to come to their southern Utah home in Washington City, where Robinson grew up.
“As they discussed the situation, Robinson implied that he was the shooter and stated that he couldn’t go to jail and just wanted to end it,” charging documents allege.
Instead, Robinson’s parents persuaded him to speak with a family friend and fellow member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who persuaded Robinson to turn himself in, according to court records.
Robinson made his first court appearance Tuesday, joining virtually from the Utah County Jail.
Authorities on Tuesday charged Robinson with seven offenses: aggravated murder, a first-degree felony; discharge of a firearm, a first-degree felony; two counts of obstruction of justice, second-degree felonies; two counts of tampering with a witness, third-degree felonies; and a misdemeanor count of violence committed in the presence of a child.
Robinson’s next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29.