Orem, Utah (AP) – The suspect in The murder of Charlie Kirk was taken prisoner, said President Donald Trump on Friday, which represented a significant breakthrough in the investigation into a targeted murder that raised new alarms about political violence in the United States.
“With a high degree of certainty we have him,” Trump announced in a live interview on Fox News Channel. He said that a minister who was also involved in law enforcement changed the suspect in the authorities.
“Someone who was very close to him said,” Hmm, that’s he, “said Trump.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said that the suspect had indicated a family friend that he was connected to the shooting. Cox, a Republican, said that the suspect had become more politics and was against Kirk’s beliefs
The suspect in custody in connection with Kirk’s murder is a 22-year-old from Utah, a law enforcement officer told The Associated Press. Authorities have identified the suspect as Tyler Robinson, said that the official, who was not authorized to discuss the current investigation and spoke about the condition of anonymity.
Calls to telephone numbers mentioned for Robinson in public archives sounded unanswered.
The FBI and the Ministry of Justice did not immediately comment, but a press conference in Utah, where the murder took place this week at a university campus, was planned for later Friday. The news of the arrest came hours after the FBI and state officials had argued for public help by releasing extra photos of the suspect, a movement that seemed to indicate that law enforcement was uncertain about the person’s place of residence.
Kirk was killed by a single shot in what the police said was a targeted attack and the Governor of Utah called a political murder. Kirk is co-founder of the non-profit political organization Turning Point USALocated in Arizona.
Authorities restored a powerful, bolt-action rifle near the scene of the shooting and had said that the shooter jumped off a roof and then disappeared into the nearby forest.
Kirk spoke during a debate organized by Turning Point at Utah Valley University at the time of Wednesday’s shooting. He was taken to a local hospital and was declared dead hours later.
“He wanted to help young people, and he didn’t earn this,” Trump said Friday. “He was really a good person.”
Federal researchers and state officials had Thursday Photos and video released of the person they believe is responsible. Kirk was shot while he spoke with a crowd Collected in a courtyard at the University in Orem.
More than 7,000 leads and tips had been poured in, officials said. Authorities still have to quote a motive in the murder, The last act of political violence To condemn the United States.
Grisly video shared online
The attack, carried out in broad daylight while Kirk spoke about social issues, was recorded Grisly videos that spread on social media.
The videos show Kirk, who influenced the collecting young Republican voters, Speak in a handheld microphone When suddenly a shot goes out. Kirk reaches up with his right hand while blood flows from the left side of his neck. Institute spectators panted and shout before people start running away.
De Schutter, who, according to researchers in the campus crowd because of a performance by the university,, according to the authorities, shot one shot from the roof. Video that was released on Thursday, showed the person who then walked through the grass and across the street before he disappears.
“I can tell you that this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the best FBI agent in Salt Lake City.
Trump, accompanied by Democrats in condemning violencehe said that he would grant Kirk the presidential medal of freedom, the highest civil honor in the American vice president JD Vance and his wife, Usha, Visited with Kirk’s family Thursday In Salt Lake City. Vance placed a memory of X to describe their friendship, which goes back to first reports in 2017, via Vance’s Senate Run and the 2024 elections.
“So much of the success we have had in this administration speaks directly to Charlie’s ability to organize and grow together,” wrote Vance. “He didn’t help us alone in 2024, he helped us to man the entire government.”
Kirk’s Kist was flew on board Air Force Two from Utah to Phoenix, where his non -profit political youth organization is located. Trump told reporters that he intends to attend Kirk’s funeral. Details have not been announced.
Kirk took questions about arms violence
Kirk was a conservative provocateur who became a powerful political power among young Republicans and was a competition at university campuses, where he sometimes invited debate on social issues about social issues.
Such a provocative exchange immediately took place before the shooting when Kirk took over from a public member Gunwear.
The debate organized by Turning Point in the Sorensen Center on campus was invoiced as the first stop on Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour”.
The event generated a polarizing campus reaction. An online petition in which university managers were called to show Kirk received nearly 1,000 signatures. Last week the university issued a statement with the help of the rights of the first amendment and its ‘dedication to freedom of expression, intellectual research and constructive dialogue’.
Last week Kirk posted on X images of news clips that demonstrated his visit caused controversy. He wrote: “What’s going on in Utah?”
Participants barricaded themselves in classrooms
Some those present who shot after the shot two classrooms full of students. They used tables to barricade the door and to protect themselves in the corners. Someone grabbed an electric pencil grinder and wrapped the cord tightly around the door handle and tied the grinder to a chair leg.
On the Thursday campus, the Luifel stamped with the slogan Kirk that was often used at his events – “proves me wrong” – confused.
In the meantime, the shooting kept drawing two -part conviction While Democratic officials joined Trump and other Republican allies of Kirk in deciphering the attack, which unfolded during a peak of political violence that touched a series of ideologies and representatives of both major political parties.
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