Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer was indoctrinated with left-wing views and involved in a romantic relationship with someone transitioning from male to female when, authorities say, he gunned down the rising conservative star last week on a Utah college campus.
The news of Tyler Robinson’s viewpoints and his transgender relationship, announced by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, are among the details law enforcement officials are using to try to piece together the motivation behind Mr. Kirk’s assassination.
Mr. Robinson, 22, was taken into custody Thursday night, less than 36 hours after Mr. Kirk was killed by a single bullet fired from the rooftop of a building at Utah Valley University.
The shot struck the Turning Point USA creator in the neck as he engaged in a question-and-answer-style debate on hot-button issues with thousands of students gathered on the campus green.
At the moment he was shot, Mr. Kirk, 31, who opposed transgender ideology, was debating a student on the topic of mass shootings committed by transgender people.
Mr. Kirk’s death may be tied to transgender ideology.
Mr. Robinson is expected in court Tuesday to face charges of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice in a capital/first-degree felony.
He is being held without bail in the Utah County Jail. Mr. Cox said he has clammed up and is not cooperating with authorities.
However, his transgender boyfriend, Lance Twiggs, also his roommate, is answering questions.
The two lived in an apartment in St. George, about a four-hour drive from the Utah Valley University campus.
“The roommate was a romantic partner, a male transitioning to female,” Mr. Cox said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This partner has been incredibly cooperative” and “had no idea that this was happening. And he’s working with investigators right now.”
Mr. Cox, a Republican, said the exact motive behind the shooting isn’t clear, but authorities are examining “leftist ideology.” People around him said Mr. Robinson had become “deeply indoctrinated.” Authorities are also looking at whether the transgender identity of Mr. Robinson’s boyfriend played a role in motivating the shooting of Mr. Kirk, 31.
Mr. Kirk, credited with helping boost the youth vote for President Trump in the November election, is known for his viral videos in which he debated students on college campuses about left-wing viewpoints. He rejected the belief that those who question their gender should be provided with hormones or surgery.
Mr. Kirk was a devout Christian and critical of so-called gender-affirming care for children and young people.
He also enraged the left by questioning the repercussions of diversity, equity and inclusion policies, opposing abortion and feminism, and calling for the deportation of illegal immigrants.
He was among several popular conservative influencers who received death threats over their viewpoints that the left often took out of context and characterized as regressive, misogynistic, fascist, homophobic and even dangerous.
Although Mr. Robinson has remained silent, family members, friends and neighbors are providing details about his shift to the political left and his involvement in online communities such as FurAffinity.net, a site dedicated to “furries” artwork, some of it sexual in nature.
The furry subculture is interested in anthropomorphic animals. Furry fans often share furry artwork or wear animal costumes known as “fursuits.”
Online sleuths also have dug into postings by his romantic partner, Mr. Twiggs, 22. They reposted a selfie he took while dressed in a “fursuit” and another photo of him wearing a furry headpiece.
One of the shell casings recovered by law enforcement was carved, allegedly by Mr. Robinson, with a furries-themed message: “notices bulges, OWO, what’s this?”
Another bullet had the engraved message “Hey fascist, catch!” It was followed by arrow symbols associated with the shooter video game Helldivers 2.
A message on a third bullet was “oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao,” lyrics from a World War II song co-opted in recent years by the left-wing and increasingly violent antifa movement. The song is also used in a popular first-person shooter video game called Far Cry 6.
Another bullet casing was carved with the message “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.”
Mr. Robinson was raised in the Mormon faith by a family that describes itself as Republican.
Authorities said he was turned in by his father, who recognized his son in the grainy photo that the FBI circulated widely soon after the shooting. The family is cooperating with the investigation.
Authorities said they have not ruled out a wider conspiracy to kill Mr. Kirk.
Neighbors told media outlets that they spotted visitors with out-of-state license plates visiting Mr. Robinson’s home two weeks before the shooting.
Mr. Twiggs has turned over messages to authorities from the online communications platform Discord.
The arrest affidavit said that in the Discord messages, Mr. Robinson “stated the need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point — leaving the rifle in a bush,” and messages “related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel.”
Members of his family told police and the FBI that Mr. Robinson despised Mr. Kirk and, before the shooting, made a point of telling them about Mr. Kirk’s upcoming appearance at Utah Valley University.
Mr. Robinson told his family Mr. Kirk “was full of hate and spreading hate.”
At the time of the shooting, Mr. Robinson was in training at a local technical college to become an electrician. In an online video from his senior year in high school, he read aloud an offer from Utah State University for what appeared to be a full scholarship. He attended the school but dropped out after one semester.
Family members told authorities he had become more political in recent years.
Mr. Cox said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that authorities had additional forensic evidence tying Mr. Robinson to the shooting that will be made public when he is charged Tuesday.
The governor said Mr. Robinson’s ideology apparently took a dark turn after he dropped out of Utah State and became more entrenched with left-wing online communities and violent video games.
“Clearly, there was a lot of gaming going on. Friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture, and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep,” Mr. Cox said. “And you saw that on the [bullet] casings. I didn’t have any idea what many of those inscriptions even meant. But they are certainly the ‘memeification’ that is happening in our society today.”
