Charlie Kirk murder, murderer Tyler Robinson identified by his father: 'Bella ciao' on a bullet

Utah Governor Cox said a family member told investigators that Tyler Robinson had become 'more political' in recent years. Cox said the family member recalled a recent incident in which Robinson had shown up for dinner before 10 September and had mentioned that Charlie Kirk was going to Utah Valley University, talking about why""he didn't like him or the views he held". According to Cox, Robinson had told a family member that 'Kirk was full of hate and spread hate'.

Cox reported that investigators interviewed Tyler Robinson's roommate, who showed them messages between him and an account with the name 'Tyler' on the messaging app Discord. In the messages, "Tyler" stated the need to retrieve a rifle from a drop-off point, leave it in a bush, survey the area where the rifle was left and keep it wrapped in a towel. The messages, he added, also mentioned engraving bullets, a scope and the fact that the rifle was 'unique'.

Facial recognition technology was allegedly used to identify Robinson, and some items visible in the surveillance camera images were found on the young man. Law enforcement sources reported that the young man confessed to his father, who then informed the authorities.

The FBI had circulated grainy images apparently taken from security cameras showing a person wearing a black top, black sunglasses and a dark baseball cap. An image of a bald eagle was apparently stamped on the long-sleeved top, waving a US flag.

FBI and state officials said the killer arrived on campus minutes before the start of the event, a Kirk-led debate entitled "Prove Me Wrong" in front of 3,000 people in Utah Valley, about 40 miles (65 km) south of Salt Lake City.

"This is a watershed moment, but we don't know what kind yet. It looks a lot like the late 1960s," Utah Governor Cox said in the press conference on Charlie Kirk's murder, describing social media as a "cancer" and adding that humans are "not biologically capable of processing ... violent images."" Then, addressing young people, he said they are "inheriting a country where politics looks like anger, where anger looks like the only option. "But your generation," he added, "has the opportunity to build a very different culture from the one we are suffering now. Not by pretending that differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and addressing those difficult conversations."

Conservative activist Charlie ''Kirk was like a son'' to US President Donald Trump. He said this himself during an interview with Fox & Friends, describing Kirk as "a bright kid" who "helped me with TikTok", adding that Republicans normally struggle to win over young voters. Trump then claimed that he did not want to watch the video of the shooting, stating that he did not want to remember Kirk that way. The US president added that he felt the video was "horrible".

Federal and state investigators in Utah had asked for the public's help in finding the person who murdered conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Kirk was murdered Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem. Authorities released photos and video of the person they believe was responsible as he walked across the campus.

Security camera footage showed a person climbing the stairs to access a rooftop before shooting Kirk, officials said at a press conference. Kirk, a staunch defender of gun rights, was responding to an audience question about mass shootings when the bullet struck his neck. The audience fled in panic.

The killer jumped off the roof and fled into an adjacent neighbourhood, said Robert Bohls, an FBI special agent in charge.

Investigators found a 'high-powered, bolt-action rifle' in a nearby wooded area and were examining it along with palm prints and footprints for clues.

On Thursday, with classes cancelled, the roof of the campus building and nearby woods were wrapped with yellow tape as investigators combed them for evidence.

The shooter appeared to be of college age and "integrated well" on campus, Utah Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said during the briefing.

Kirk was co-founder and president of the conservative student group Turning Point USA and appeared Wednesday at Utah Valley as part of a planned 'American Comeback Tour' of 15 events on US university campuses. His murder sparked outrage and denunciations of political violence from Democrats, Republicans and foreign governments.

Trump said he will award Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour.

Kirk, married and the father of two young children, was celebrated by Republicans as a charismatic advocate of right-wing policies on race, gender, immigration, religion and gun regulation. He frequently confronted his critics from the far left to the far right, often inviting his audience to debate with him live.

 Racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, hostile to trans people, no vax, anti-abortion, pro-gun and pro-death penalty: Charlie Kirk, the influential right-wing activist killed on a campus in Utah, was also all of these things, divisive, provocative, incendiary.

Here are some of his shock phrases, reported by Ansa on 12 September 2025, those with which he had inflamed the Maga people, spoken at public events or written on social media, almost a manifesto of the white, rural America that represents Trump's electoral basin.
"The price we pay for the freedom to own guns is that someone will sometimes be killed".
"The culture of murder is spreading to the left. The left is drawn into a violent frenzy. Every negative result, be it defeat at an election or in court, justifies a maximalist response."
"Abortion must be banned. If my ten-year-old daughter was raped, she would have to give birth" to a possible child conceived in rape.
"Michelle Obama, a black woman, has an inferior brain to that of a white woman".
"When I see a black pilot on a plane I wonder if he is qualified."
"It should be legal to burn a rainbow or "Black Lives Matter" flag in public."
"Importing millions of Muslims is suicide for our civilisation".
"Europe must stop or it will die. Islam is not compatible with western civilisation".
"A man who identifies as trans is dressing a woman's mask just as I might dress a black man's mask. And he is doing something evil, no matter that in his head he thinks he is doing a good thing: the Nazis thought so too".
"So many textbooks fail to present students with multiple versions of the facts on a subject. Students are being pushed towards an education that demonises free enterprise and praises class struggle".
"The death sentences should be public, fast, televised. I think at a certain age it would also be an initiation. At what age should one begin to see public executions?"