People mourn Charlie Kirk outside of the Turning Point USA headquarters on Friday in Phoenix, Arizona.CHARLY TRIBALLEAU/AFP/Getty Images
U.S. authorities capped the manhunt in the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk with the arrest of a 22-year-old Utah man on Friday, as the country struggled to tone down its fractious politics after a steady stream of political violence.
Police accuse Tyler Robinson, a university drop-out with no immediately apparent political affiliation, of being the sniper who killed Mr. Kirk, 31, during a public event in the quadrangle of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Under Utah law, they have three days to file charges.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who counted Mr. Kirk as a high-profile ally and friend, announced the arrest in a Fox News appearance early Friday. He said the suspect’s father and a clergyman were both involved in turning the man in.
Mugshot of 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a suspect arrested in connection with the killing of Charlie Kirk.Supplied
Governor Spencer Cox said “a family member” of Mr. Robinson’s told a friend that Mr. Robinson had indicated he was the shooter and the friend contacted the local sheriff’s office in Washington County, where Mr. Robinson lived with his parents. Mr. Robinson then surrendered to authorities in the area, about 3½ hours’ drive south of the university in Orem.
The family member told investigators that Mr. Robinson had “become more political in recent years.” In a recent dinner-table conversation, Mr. Robinson talked about how he did not like Mr. Kirk and knew he was coming to speak in Utah, the Governor quoted the family member as saying.
Charlie Kirk’s videos thrived on controversy as he used the manosphere playbook to reshape politics
The Governor also read out the messages inscribed on bullet casings recovered by police near the campus, along with the Mauser bolt-action rifle believed to be the weapon used in the crime. At least some referenced internet meme and gaming culture. “Notices bulges OwO what’s this?” read one; “if you read this, you are gay LMAO,” said another. A third read “Hey fascist! Catch!” A fourth appeared to be a series of controller moves from the game Helldivers 2.
Police also recovered messages believed to have been sent by Mr. Robinson over Discord, a messaging platform popular with gamers, that referenced hiding the rifle and engraving the bullets, Mr. Cox said.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called social media 'a cancer on our society' on Friday and warned the nation is at a 'watershed moment,' comparing Charlie Kirk’s killing to the political assassinations of the late 1960s.
The Associated Press
The Governor closed the news conference with an impassioned plea for the country to step back from the brink.
“The problem with political violence is it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side. At some point, we have to find an off-ramp, or it’s going to get much, much worse,” he said.
Mr. Cox, a Republican, said much of the blame lies with online echo chambers. “Social media is a cancer on our society right now and I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass.”
Opinion: Charlie Kirk is a sick nation’s sacrifice
Whether the country can do this remained an open question. Similar exhortations after previous rounds of political violence – including the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, two assassination attempts against Mr. Trump last year, and the murder of a Minnesota Democratic legislator this past June – have not reversed the trend of mounting polarization.
Calls for moderation such as Mr. Cox’s threatened to be drowned out by partisan antipathy. And Mr. Trump, rather than seeking to bridge divides as previous presidents have often done in such moments of crisis, promised retribution against his political opponents.
A suspect in the fatal shooting of right-wing youth leader Charlie Kirk at a Utah university has been taken into custody, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday.
Reuters
On Wednesday, he vowed to crack down on unspecified leftist organizations that he accused of funding political violence. On Thursday, he said “we just have to beat the hell” out of “radical left lunatics.” During his Friday appearance on Fox & Friends, he said he “couldn’t care less” about radicals on the right.
“The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy,” he said.
The House of Representatives, meanwhile, couldn’t tamp down its rancour long enough for a moment of silence. After Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday called for silent prayer, a shouting match broke out between members on both sides.
“You all caused this,” Republican Representative Anna Paulina Luna accused Democrats. Democrat Jahana Hayes fired back: “Pass some gun laws.”
Opinion: The assassination of Charlie Kirk has revealed the authoritarian inside all of us
Even Mr. Kirk’s legacy was hotly debated.
Ezra Klein, the liberal New York Times columnist, lauded the Turning Point USA leader for going to universities and staging wide-ranging public debates. “Kirk was practicing politics in exactly the right way. He was showing up to campuses and talking with anyone who would talk to him,” Mr. Klein wrote.
Others surfaced social media clips of Mr. Kirk’s many contentious comments.
In one, he argued that Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and other prominent Black women had only experienced professional success because of affirmative action and do “not have the brain processing power to otherwise be taken really seriously.” In others, he endorsed the great replacement conspiracy theory, pushed Mr. Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was rigged, and wrote that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was “totally corrupt.”
A vigil for U.S. right-wing activist and commentator Charlie Kirk, at Madison Square Park in New York City, on Friday.ADAM GRAY/Reuters
Still, there were some signs that at least a few of the country’s highest-profile political figures were on the same page as Mr. Cox in wanting to bridge the divides.
Mr. Johnson repeatedly called for calm: “I’m always about turning down the temperature and encouraging members to walk in the dignity of their office,” he said on Thursday at the Capitol.
In a video, leftist Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said it was “political cowardice” to try to silence opponents through violence. “A free and democratic society depends on the basic premise that people can speak out, organize and take part in public life without fear.”
Several top officials in Mr. Trump’s government, for their part, signalled the central place that Mr. Kirk had held in his movement.
Vice-President JD Vance helped carry Mr. Kirk’s coffin onto Air Force Two and flew it to Arizona, where he had lived. And FBI director Kash Patel flew to Utah for the investigation and used the Friday press conference to deliver a personal message to Mr. Kirk.
“Rest now, brother,” he said. “We have the watch and I’ll see you in Valhalla.”
Visitors pay their respects at a memorial for Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Friday.Lindsey Wasson/The Associated Press