Reports early Friday revealed the name of the suspect believed to have assassinated conservative activist and Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
President Trump announced Friday that the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination was turned in by his father. Law enforcement sources told the New York Post the suspect is Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah resident.
“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” during a live interview at the cable giant’s Manhattan studio, saying he heard just minutes before his 8 a.m. interview. “Somebody who was very close to him turned him in,” the president said, then revealing it was the suspect’s dad who relayed it through “a minister who was involved with law enforcement.”
The president added: “I hope he’s going to be found guilty, and I hope he gets the death penalty. What he did — Charlie Kirk was the finest person and he didn’t deserve this.” Trump did not ID the suspect, but law enforcement sources told The Post it was Robinson, who lives in Utah.
Investigators are expected to provide a public update later this morning. Authorities and sources previously told The Post the suspect is believed to have fired a single round from an elevated position roughly 200 yards from the tent where Kirk, 31, was seated outside the university’s Losee Center.
Early reports described the suspect as a gunman in jeans, a black shirt, and a black vest, positioned with a long rifle on a rooftop east of the university library.
Kirk, the Turning Point USA co-founder and father of two, had just responded to a question about mass shootings by transgender individuals at the outdoor campus event in Orem when he was struck by a single round.