The investigation into Charlie Kirk’s killing continues. Here’s what we know
CNN Newsource
By Piper Hudspeth Blackburn, CNN
(CNN) — Charlie Kirk’s assassination continues to reverberate across the United States as investigators work to learn more about the conservative activist’s killing and the 22-year-old Utah man alleged to have carried it out.
The suspect, Tyler Robinson, is slated to appear in state court on Tuesday. He is being held without bail at the Utah County Jail on charges including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice, according to officials.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office told CNN on Sunday that Robinson is being held in a special housing unit and will remain on special watch pending a mental health evaluation, a process that may take several days.
Here’s what to know:
Robinson is not cooperating, governor says
Over the weekend, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared more information that investigators had uncovered about Robinson, a third-year student in an electrical apprenticeship program who grew up in the small suburban community of Washington, Utah.
Robinson is not cooperating with authorities, Cox said. Still, investigators have pointed to gaming and “dark internet” culture as potential factors that allegedly radicalized him based on information from family, friends, and acquaintances.
“Clearly, there was a lot of gaming going on, friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, Reddit culture and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep. You saw that on the casings … the meme-ification that is happening in our society today,” the Republican governor told NBC News, referencing the messages engraved on bullet casings in a rifle found near the deadly shooting.
Those messages included a mix of memes and allusions to video games. They featured a series of arrows representing the controls used to carry out an attack in the video game Helldivers 2 and lyrics of a popular Italian song linked to anti-fascists.
Cox told CNN’s Dana Bash on Sunday that authorities are also investigating whether Robinson’s romantic relationship with his roommate, who was transitioning from male to female, could be connected to the motivation for the shooting.
“This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening and is working with investigators right now,” Cox said on “State of the Union.”
Jud Hoffman, vice president of the social and gaming platform Discord, said in a statement Friday that there were “communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere.”
Cox appeared to confirm the existence of a note in the interview with CNN but indicated it was still under review.
“Those are things that are still being processed for accuracy and verification and will be included in charging documents,” Cox said.
He declined to share specific details when pressed by Bash on whether a note was found.
FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday, however, that the suspect left a note saying he had the “opportunity to take out” Kirk and “I’m going to take it.”
Patel described the message as both a “note” and a “text message exchange.” He said the writing had since been “destroyed” but was recovered by investigators. Patel did not share the full text of the message.
The FBI director added that DNA recovered from a screwdriver and towel that were both found with the gun used in Kirk’s killing were matched for the suspect in the assassination.
Robinson’s family, Patel said, told investigators that Robinson had “subscribed to left-wing ideology.” Patel did not provide specifics on what that ideology included.
Robinson apparently confessed to killing Kirk in an online group chat, according to the Washington Post. The Post on Monday detailed messages sent by Robinson to a small group of people on the online platform Discord that show him saying he had “bad news,” and that it was “me at UVU yesterday.”
He told the group that he would be surrendering shortly and thanked them for “all the good times and laughs,” the outlet said, citing sources and screenshots viewed by the Post. Robinson sent the messages about two hours before he was taken into custody, and it didn’t appear anyone responded to the chat, according to the report.
Later Monday, Patel told Fox News that Robinson wrote “some hatred cannot be negotiated with” in a text exchange.
Patel also said Monday night, “We’re going to be interviewing scores of people on not just these chats on Discord, but any communications that this individual had. We’ve seized multiple electronic devices from the home of the suspect and his romantic partner. We’ve got computers, we’ve got laptops, we’ve got gaming systems, we’ve got cellphones, all of that is being triaged by the FBI because that’s what we do.”
Patel’s comments come despite Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose Justice Department oversees the FBI, saying she cannot discuss details of the ongoing investigation.
Meanwhile, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown has yet to announce whether authorities would pursue the death penalty. He said Friday that “everything is on the table.”
CNN has reached out to law enforcement about Discord chats in the case, as well as the Utah Department of Public Safety for comment.
Kirk’s killing reverberates through Washington
The fallout of Kirk’s killing is coursing through Washington, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers worried that violent attacks on political figures could become more common.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot at an event in 2011, called political violence “a pervasive issue in our country” and cautioned against placing blame with one side.
“Whether you’re a governor or senator, a member of the House, president of the United States, you have to be very careful about your words because people are listening,” Kelly, who represented Kirk in Congress, told NBC on Sunday.
Utah Sen. John Curtis, a Republican, echoed that point over the weekend in an interview with ABC, saying, “Radical coming from any direction is not good, it’s not healthy and it should be called out.”
Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s been working to reassure House members about their personal security in the days following Kirk’s killing.
“I’ve been talking with a lot of them over the last few days about that and trying to calm the nerves to assure them that we will make certain that everyone has a level of security that’s necessary,” the Louisiana Republican said Sunday on CBS.
In July, following fatal shootings targeting state lawmakers in Minnesota, the US House increased security funding and resources for members. Johnson told CNN last week that roughly 60 Democrats and 20 Republicans took advantage of that program, and he wants to examine what worked and what didn’t.
Johnson joined other Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officials for a vigil honoring Kirk at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on Sunday evening. He urged an audience of mourners to adopt the Turning Point USA founder’s principles and approach, insisting that “Charlie loved the vigorous debate, but he loved people more.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also praised Kirk’s legacy as one that championed conservative and Christian values, and highlighted the impact he had on the 2024 election. “President Trump loved you, Charlie, so much too,” she added.
President Donald Trump told reporters Monday that he plans to speak Sunday at Kirk’s funeral in Phoenix, Arizona.
Trump administration blames ‘radical left’
The president, along with other members of his administration, has continued to blame the “radical left” for Kirk’s killing and on Monday previewed a plan to crack down on what he’s cast as a widespread network of left-wing radicals inciting violence.
Speaking from the Oval Office, Trump said Robinson was “radicalized on the left,” though he didn’t offer more details of his political viewpoints. “He’s a left. A lot of problems with the left, and they get protected, and they shouldn’t be protected.”
Trump on Monday said he’d consider naming far-left anti-fascism group Antifa and other left-wing groups as domestic terrorists and said he’d been discussing with Attorney General Pam Bondi the prospect of bringing racketeering charges against left-wing groups that he claimed were funding left-wing agitators.
So far, no evidence has publicly emerged that the alleged assassin was working as part of a larger, coordinated effort.
Vice President JD Vance blamed Kirk’s death on “a growing and powerful minority on the far left,” in his concluding remarks while hosting “The Charlie Kirk Show” earlier Monday.
“We can thank God that most Democrats don’t share these attitudes, and I do, while acknowledging that something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe, a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left,” Vance said.
Trump’s deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller also appeared on the podcast and said the White House will be going after leftist “terror” networks who organize doxxing campaigns. He did not specify any specific groups.
This story has been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Samantha Waldenberg, Taylor Romine, Alejandra Jaramillo, Jenna Monnin, Betul Tuncer, Kevin Liptak, Michael Williams and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.
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