OREM, Utah (AP) — DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle found near where conservative activist Charlie Kirk was assassinated matched that of the 22-year-old accused in the killing, FBI Director Kash Patel said on Monday.
Investigators also have used DNA evidence to link the suspect, Tyler Robinson, with a screwdriver recovered from the rooftop where the fatal shot was fired, Patel said Monday on the Fox News show “Fox & Friends.”
Authorities in Utah are preparing to file capital murder charges against Robinson as early as Tuesday in the killing of Kirk, a dominant figure in conservative politics who became a confidant of President Donald Trump after founding Arizona-based Turning Point USA, one of the nation’s largest political organizations.
Kirk, who brought young, conservative evangelical Christians into politics, was shot Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University during one of his many campus stops. The shooting raised fears about increasing political violence in a deeply polarized United States.
Officials have said Robinson carried a hatred for Kirk and ascribed to a “leftist ideology” that had grown in recent years. Robinson’s family and friends said he spent large amounts of time scrolling the “dark corners of the internet,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday.
Patel told Fox 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, the FBI director said, paraphrasing from the note without revealing more details.
Over the weekend, Cox said Robinson’s romantic partner was transgender, but authorities did not know yet whether the suspect targeted Kirk for his anti-transgender views.
Utah’s department of public safety chief said Monday that Robinson’s partner has been cooperative.
“There was a romantic, personal relationship there. We are still investigating whether that individual had any involvement,” commissioner Beau Mason told The Associated Press.
“We believe that Tyler Robinson acted by himself during this shooting,” said Mason, who added that investigators are looking at whether anyone else knew of his plans beforehand.
Authorities said Robinson has not been cooperating with law enforcement since being jailed for suspicion of aggravated murder. They say that he may have been “radicalized” online and that ammunition found in the gun used to kill Kirk included anti-fascist and meme-culture engravings. Court records show that one bullet casing had the message, “Hey, fascist! Catch!”
Robinson was arrested late Thursday near where he grew up around St. George, in the southwestern corner of Utah between Las Vegas and Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks. It’s unclear whether he has an attorney who could speak on his behalf, and his family has declined to comment to the AP.
Authorities also revealed Monday that a man arrested in the aftermath of the shooting was taken into custody because he yelled, “I shot him, now shoot me.” A probable cause statement said George Zinn later admitted that he only said that “so the real suspect could get away.” A voicemail message left after hours at the office of an attorney who represented Zinn for another case earlier this year was not immediately returned.
Since the shooting, security experts have questioned the level of security at the event, including the number of officers and the decision to hold it outside. Kirk was known to prefer being as close to students as possible during his tour on college campuses, allowing him to strike up conversations with passersby. And with each stop, his level of protection varied greatly.
Tributes to Kirk continued across the country. A line of mourners wrapped around the Kennedy Center in Washington for a vigil Sunday, and there were moments of silence at several professional sporting events.
On Monday, a massive American flag was hung from a walkway just above where Kirk sat before the shooting. Near a flower- and flag-adorned memorial for Kirk close to a university entrance, people had scrawled messages in chalk across the sidewalks — largely bible versus and exhortations to love intermingled with more severe messages. “Bullets can’t stop the truth,” exclaimed one.
Vice President JD Vance, who counted Kirk as a close friend, served as a substitute host Monday on “The Charlie Kirk Show” on Rumble, a streaming platform.
Vance spoke about how Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, told him her husband never raised his voice to her and was never “cross or mean-spirited to her.”
“I took from that moment that I needed to be a better husband and I needed to be a better father,” the vice president said. “That is the way I’m going to honor my friend.”
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Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio.
