Updates: Suspected Charlie Kirk killer, Tyler Robinson, 22, held in custody

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To learn more of what we know about Tyler Robinson, Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer, read this explainer.

Before we close, here’s a recap of the latest updates:

• Utah Governor Spencer Cox has thanked the family of Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, for doing “the right thing” and getting the 22-year-old to surrender himself to police.
• Information has slowly trickled in about Robinson and his family, who live in a suburb outside the city of St George in southern Utah, 3.5 hours from Utah Valley University, where Kirk was slain.
• Utah state records show Robinson is registered to vote, but he is not affiliated with any political party. Robinson’s parents are registered Republicans.
• Records do not show any prior criminal cases involving Robinson, but his family said he had recently become “more political” and even raised his dislike of Kirk in discussion.
• Erika Kirk has spoken for the first time since her husband was murdered, telling the killer he has “no idea what you have just unleashed across this entire country”.
• Utah Attorney General Derek Brown has stated he can’t currently say whether prosecutors will pursue the death penalty for Kirk’s murder, but “everything is on the table.”

A Canadian journalist falsely accused of celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death says she fears for her safety after receiving a “tsunami” of death threats.

In a video published online, independent journalist Rachel Gilmore spoke about being falsely targeted for celebrating Charlie Kirk’s death.

Gilmore, who previously spoke to Wired magazine, initially posted to social media that she was concerned the right wing and Kirk’s supporters would use the moment to attack its perceived opponents.

She was then singled out by right-wing figures, and her name was added to a list on a website purporting to “Expose Charlie’s Murderers”.

“People are out for blood right now and there are people out there who are using this moment irresponsibly to serve up their perceived political enemies as a sacrifice,” Gilmore said.

“And for what? They’re just proving me right.

“And I just hope no one makes good on these threats, because I now have to live as if they might,” she said.

We reported earlier that far-right rally organisers in the UK have invoked the memory of US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk to promote a large protest march in London later today.

The event is being called by well-known far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who says hundreds of thousands will turn out for the rally.

“March for freedom, march for your children, and march for Charlie Kirk,” Robinson said in a video posted to social media.

The event, which will feature a march over Westminster Bridge and a rally near Downing Street, is due to feature far-right figures from across Europe and North America.

Planned speakers include French politician Eric Zemmour and Petr Bystron of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Far-right commentator Katie Hopkins and controversial Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson are also expected.

Counterprotests by antiracism campaigners are also expected.

While authorities have yet to reveal a motive for the killing of Charlie Kirk, they have released more details on the evidence recovered from the scene of the shooting, including the type of rifle used by the attacker.

• According to reports, a Mauser .30-calibre, bolt-action rifle was found in a towel in a wooded area along the path investigators believe the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, took after firing a single shot from a rooftop at a distance from Kirk and hitting him in the neck.
• The clothes Robinson wore when he turned himself over to law enforcement late on Thursday matched what he had on when he arrived at the university campus before the shooting.
• A family member also confirmed Robinson drove a grey-coloured Dodge Challenger, which matched the vehicle seen in surveillance video that recorded Robinson driving to the university on the day of the shooting, Utah’s Governor Cox said.

The X account – which was created in the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s death and currently has almost 28,000 followers – has been posting the names and photos of individuals it alleges have celebrated the conservative activist’s murder.

The account, which also runs an accompanying website, has now said it will soon publish a “database” of 20,000 individuals that will be “searchable by general location, employer, and industry type”.

“This is a permanent and continuously-updating archive of Radical activists calling for violence,” it says on its website.

Right-wing activist and polarising political commentator Charlie Kirk is estimated to have amassed millions in personal wealth by the time he was killed this week, according to reports.

Kirk was a well-known commentator, author, and the host of two current affairs podcasts at the time of his death.

A database of company records maintained by the ProPublica investigative news organisation lists Kirk’s salary as $285,929 in 2024, a considerable increase from a salary of $27,231 in 2016.

Turning Point USA, established by Kirk, reported a net income of $3,993,687 in the 2024 financial year.

Both Parade Magazine and Celebrity Net Worth estimated Kirk’s wealth to be $12m, largely from speaker fees and other opportunities associated with his public appearances.

Australian news website News.com reported that Kirk sold a house for $5.25m in Scottsdale, Arizona, months before his death.

Office Depot has fired a staff member at its store in Portage, Michigan, for allegedly refusing to print a poster of Charlie Kirk for a vigil.

Matthew DePerno, a lawyer and Republican activist, said a print supervisor at the office supply chain refused to complete the order as the poster was “propaganda”.

A clip of the encounter shared by DePerno on the X social media platform quickly racked up tens of thousands of views, prompting users to demand a boycott.

Office Depot has now issued an apology, calling the employee’s behaviour “completely unacceptable and insensitive”.

“On behalf of the Company, we sincerely apologise for this regrettable situation,” the company said. It added that it continues to “aggressively investigate the matter and will take action where appropriate”.

Far-right groups in the United Kingdom are invoking the death of Charlie Kirk in the hope of encouraging turnout at what has been advertised as the country’s largest ultra-nationalist rallies in decades.

The Guardian newspaper reports that Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, will be speaking at the rally to be held later today in central London, along with a host of other far-right figures from across the UK, the US and Europe.

The rallies have been organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who The Guardian reports has been increasingly promoting Christian nationalism after leaving prison.

In a video to supporters following Kirk’s death, Robinson reportedly railed against Kirk’s killer, but also suggested that a corporation, organisation or government may have been responsible.

Let’s get you up to speed on the latest developments:

• Utah Governor Spencer Cox has thanked the family of Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer, Tyler Robinson, for doing “the right thing” and bringing the 22-year-old into law enforcement.
• Erika Kirk has spoken for the first time since her husband was murdered, telling the killer he has “no idea what you have just unleashed across this entire country”.
• Kirk’s widow also said “The American Comeback Tour” of university campuses will continue despite her husband’s killing, while Americafest, Turning Point USA’s annual conference, will go ahead as planned in December.
• Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, said he will fulfil Kirk’s wish before he died to “dismantle” left-wing groups in the US.
• Utah Attorney General Derek Brown has said he can’t currently say whether prosecutors will pursue the death penalty for whoever is charged with Charlie Kirk’s murder, but “everything is on the table.”

The engravings found on bullet casings near the scene of the Charlie Kirk killing were intended to communicate with and inspire people with similar “nihilistic” extremist views, an expert says.

Joan Donovan, an assistant professor at Boston University, told The Los Angeles Times that the use of internet memes echoed the manifestos of mass shooters in the US and elsewhere.

Donovan, an expert on extremism, said these inside messages and jokes were how groups communicate.

Memes are remixed “to make them mean something to the inside group that they don’t mean to the rest of the world”, she said.

“These messages aren’t meant for us as an audience, they are meant to inspire more people who are somewhat nihilist of the entire project of democracy,” she said.

We reported earlier that Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox had thanked the family of Tyler Robinson for doing “the right thing in this case” and helping to turn the suspected Charlie Kirk shooter over to law enforcement.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency has shared more details of how the 22-year-old suspect was taken into custody.

According to the AP, Robinson’s father recognised his son as the suspected culprit from images released by authorities and then encouraged him to turn himself in, a law enforcement official said.

The young suspect refused at first, but then changed his mind, according to the official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

Robinson’s father had also reached out for help to a youth pastor, who also helped his son turn himself over to police, the official said.

Governor Cox would not say if Robinson was cooperating with the investigation while in custody.

The suspect was being held on Friday at the Utah County Jail.

Family members of Robinson did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment, the AP reports, and it was not clear if Robinson had a lawyer yet.

Even in death, Charlie Kirk remains a polarising figure with progressive US magazine The Nation publishing an obituary that dispels attempts to “whitewash” the right-wing activist’s legacy.

In an article titled “Charlie Kirk’s Legacy Deserves No Mourning”, writer Elizabeth Speirs describes Kirk as “an unrepentant racist, transphobe, homophobe, and misogynist who often wrapped his bigotry in Bible verses because there was no other way to pretend that it was morally correct”.

Speirs unleashed a broadside on what she called a “whitewashing campaign” following Kirk’s death, saying, “It’s a choice to write an obituary that begins ‘Joseph Goebbels was a gifted marketer and loving father to six children’.”

“When we decline to speak ill of the dead, it’s because we have compassion for the living,” Speirs writes.

“In this respect, I am sorry for Kirk’s children. I don’t know if Kirk was a good father, but if he was, that does little to mitigate the damage he did to other people’s children,” Speirs added.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, has said he will fulfil Charlie Kirk’s wish before he died to “dismantle” left-wing groups in the US.

“The last message that Charlie Kirk gave to me before he joined his creator in heaven was he said that we have to dismantle and take on the radical left organisations in this country that are fomenting violence,” Miller told the US broadcaster Fox News.

“That was the last message that he sent me … we are going to do that under President Trump’s leadership,” he said.

A prominent left-wing commentator, who was scheduled to debate Charlie Kirk at an event in two weeks, says he has received death threats and is concerned for his safety following the right-wing activist’s death.

Piker said he reacted with “pure horror” at the news Kirk had been shot and that he is planning to “wait for the temperature to lower a little bit” before he returns to doing live events, he told reporters.

“While it feels like there’s an air of vengeance right now, with a lot of people immediately being like, ‘Well, we’ve got to go and kill people,’ even naming myself and saying, ‘We’re going to go kill Hasan in retaliation,’ there are a lot of people that are just very angry and frustrated and want to redirect it towards those who they believe are responsible for this,” he said.

Piker said that a failure to solve problems and a lack of responsiveness among political leaders were driving a growing sense of anger and frustration, particularly among young people in the US.

“I fear that that is the worst future possible: political repercussions, political persecution on the systemic side against political dissidents and enemies of the state, and decentralised acts of violence on the individual side,” he said.

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old Utah native arrested on suspicion of killing Charlie Kirk, was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a child.

Doug Andersen, a spokesman for the church, whose adherents are referred to as Mormons, told The New York Times he could “confirm that Robinson became a member of the church at a young age” but referred “any further inquiry about his church activity to him or his family”.

“I want to thank the family members of Tyler Robinson who did the right thing in this case and were able to bring him into law enforcement,” Utah Governor Spencer Cox said.

Suspected shooter Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody after a relative and a family friend alerted the local sheriff’s office that he had confessed to killing Charlie Kirk.

Robinson “implied that he had committed” the murder, Cox said.

“Through some process, the family came to know that this had happened,” he said.

A man suspected of killing American conservative activist Charlie Kirk is in custody.

Tyler Robinson, 22, reportedly confessed to his family about shooting Kirk, who was slain at a public speaking event in the US state of Utah.

Listen to the full report:

A trial of the suspect accused in the killing of Charlie Kirk will likely take place in Utah and be televised, a legal expert said.

Mary McCord, a federal prosecutor and former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said the chief suspect – Tyler Robinson, 22 – is unlikely to face federal charges.

There are limited circumstances where federal charges can be laid, meaning that Robinson will most likely be charged under Utah law, a jurisdiction that allows for the broadcasting of criminal trials, McCord told the Politico news outlet.