Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer was arrested after admitting the father

A 22 -year -old from Utah was arrested for the murder of right -wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead during a university event earlier this week.

Tyler Robinson was placed in police custody on Thursday after a 33 -hour man hunt that ended after his father helped to persuade him to go to the police.

His arrest was announced for the first time by President Donald Trump, who asked the suspect to face the death penalty.

The murder of Kirk, which was shot dead while debating students on Wednesday, shocked the Americans and exposed the country’s political divisions of the country.

On Friday, at a press conference on Friday, the investigators said that the suspect had confessed to his father and said that he prefers to commit suicide. The father then called a young pastor who is a friend of the family.

The two men tried to calm the suspect, police said. The pastor, who is also responsible for the security of the court, then called the American marshals who held the suspect around 10:00 p.m. on Thursday.

UTAH governor Spencer Cox said that surveillance images have shown that Robinson arrived on the University of Utah Valley campus for about four hours before a shot is lighting up, killing Kirk and sending students in progress.

The governor told journalists that when he had been placed in police custody, he wore clothes similar to what was seen on video surveillance cameras at the shooting.

He added that the investigators had interviewed a family member who said the suspect had become more political in recent years.

Cox said the family member had spoken of a recent incident when Robinson had mentioned that Kirk came to Utah and that he “was full of hatred and broadcasting of hatred”.

COX said the investigators also spoke to a suspect roommate who had shown them messages with an account named “Tyler” on the Discord messaging application.

The messages referred to the need to recover a rifle from “a fall point” and the rifle left in a bush, wrapped in a towel.

The FBI said on Thursday that they had found the suspected weapon – a rifle of bolts of Mauser .30-06 imported – wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the campus.

Cox told journalists that inscriptions had been found engraved on blines recovered with the rifle, which had a telescope mounted on it.

The inscriptions included “hey fascist! Catch!” And “o Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao”

Bella Ciao means “goodbye beautiful” in Italian. It is also the title of a song dedicated to the Italian resistance that fought the occupying troops of Nazi Germany.

The Governor of Utah said he was not aware of any other potential arrest in the investigation.

State prosecutors said they were planning to file an official complaint against Robinson on Tuesday.

He is accused of aggravated murder, obstruction of justice and the liberation of crime of a firearm, according to a reservation sheet of sheriffs of the county of Utah, obtained by the BBC.

Utah Valley University students told the BBC that they had been relieved by the arrest.

The campus has been closed from the shooting on Wednesday afternoon – with tape and yellow police vehicles blocking much of the school.

“It was arrested in Washington County, where I come from,” said first -year student McKinley Shinkle. “I’m just ashamed a lot.”

“I am definitely relieved,” added the cousin of McKinley Anthony. “I’m just worried now to hear his motivations and why it happened.”

The public archives examined by the BBC suggest that Robinson had in the past recorded as a voter not affiliated or non -partisan in Utah. Matthew Carl Robinson, the suspect’s father, and Amber Denise Robinson, the mother of the suspect, are registered Republicans, according to the state archives.

The voting files indicate that he did not vote in the last two presidential elections, according to CBS News, the American partner of the BBC. It was not old enough to vote in 2020.

The suspect lives in St George, Utah, near Zion National Park, about 250 miles (400 km) southwest of the campus where Kirk was shot.

He is a third-year student in an electrical learning program at the Dixie Technical College in southwest Utah, where he lived, a spokesperson for the University of Utah Valley (UVU) told the BBC.

Social media accounts indicate that Robinson’s father manages a kitchen counter and an installation company, while his mother is a social worker. The family is Mormon and active in the local church.