Details emerge on Tyler Robinson, the Kirk assassination suspect
[NOTE: I already have put up this post about the suspect’s capture.]
The story is worthy of literature, although there’s no Dostoevsky or Truman Capote around to write it:
Robinson was turned in after his father recognized him in photos released by the FBI on Thursday, law enforcement sources told The Post.
His father.
The father called Washington County Sheriff’s Department and confronted his son when he returned home, at which point Robinson admitted he was the gunman, the sources said.
Robinson’s father asked him to turn himself in, but his son replied that he would rather kill himself.
The father then convinced his son to speak with their youth minister, who also serves as a task force officer with the US Marshals Service.
The minister called the FBI and agents later took Robinson into custody.
We try to protect our children, but at some point we send them into the world and although most people try their best we cannot control how they choose to take that world in. Today’s young people are met with poisonous brainwashing. The brainwashing that’s entrenched in academia and so much of the MSM comes from the left and amounts to an almost constant and unavoidable barrage of systematic indoctrination. Some comes from the right, too (I’m thinking of people like Candace Owens), although it’s far more of a fringe movement and much easier to dodge or reject.
Officials say that, as far as they can tell at this point, Robinson acted alone. I think that’s likely although of course myriad online conspiracy theorists will have a field day with it.
You can find explanations of the writings on the casings here. Suffice to say that they are loaded with references that come from online memes of the Antifa variety – which is no surprise whatsoever.
Robinson’s father seems to have been more on the right:
Matt Robinson is a 27-year veteran of the Washington County Sheriff’s Department, the Daily Mail reported. He is a registered Republican. …
A family member of Tyler was interviewed by investigators, Cox said. The family member said Tyler had become more political in recent years …
One might think that Robinson’s leftist indoctrination occurred at college, but I’m not so sure because of this report:
Tyler is photographed at Utah State University and was offered an academic scholarship to attend the Logan, Utah-based university according to a letter he read aloud in a video posted to [his mother’s] social media.
Utah State University said the suspected shooter “briefly attended Utah State University for one semester in 2021.”
He lived at home with his parents, according to neighbors who spoke with USA TODAY.
So it might be that, for whatever reason, he was a dropout and almost certainly spent a lot of time online. The family is Mormon.
In today’s previous post on Robinson I made reference to Crime and Punishment’s Raskolnikov. But now with these new details, Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons enters the picture – not to mention Dostoevsky’s Demons (which was called The Possessed in the translation I read). I had read all three works by the time I was twenty years old, the first in high school and the second two in college. Those works helped me enormously to understand the political carnage of the 1960s and early 1970s, and they remain relevant today. It is impressive how 19th Century giants of Russian literature were able to describe the seeds of what the left was sowing at the time and continues to sow today.
You send your children to college to become educated, but instead of teaching thme how to think they teach them what to think.They learn liberal slogans.
The radical Left has been on a march of conquest ever since the 1960s. The anti-Left opposition has been way too feeble in responding, a feebleness encouraged by the MSM and accepted by our leadership until Donald Trump.
“Today’s young people are met with poisonous brainwashing. The brainwashing that’s entrenched in academia and so much of the MSM comes from the left and amounts to an almost constant and unavoidable barrage of systematic indoctrination.”
Truth.
For an example of this, check out the movie, “The Brainwashing of My Dad” by Jen Senko. The premise is that dad was from a liberal family but then he started listening to Rush, Glen Beck and watching Fox News. That was acceptable to the rest of the family.
Dad then became senile and they took the TV remote from him. He reverted back.
I read yesterday that the “family member” was dad. Cannot find confirmation today.
Grk sys:
An unnamed family member participated in a conversation with Tyler Robinson at a family dinner shortly before the September 10, 2025, shooting. According to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, during this discussion about Kirk’s upcoming appearance at Utah Valley University, both expressed their dislike for Kirk and his viewpoints, with the family member specifically stating that Kirk was “full of hate and spreading hate.”
3 sources
This indicates agreement with Tyler’s negative assessment of Kirk as a bad person. The family member’s identity has not been publicly disclosed in reports
Disliking Charlie Kirk, even for false reasons, is not the same as assassinating him. If family members’ agreement with his sentiments encouraged the shooter’s decision to commit murder, that’s something the family will live with for the rest of their lives.
I don’t remember where I found this link. It outlines what retribution might be in the planning stages, since people are so angry that tipping points may have been passed. It’s unsettling. On a non-violent note, the author points to RICO and other already-existing statutes which can be used to go after the leadership and funding structures of the left.
https://ombreolivier.substack.com/p/making-lists
Yeah, I agree that he didn’t really spend enough time in higher education to conclude that his leftist indoctrination occured primarily in college. It’s far more likely that he just spent a huge amount of time online. Probably a young man who was adrift in life, without a sense of purpose or direction and a general sense of alienation from his family and community. It’s likely he glommed on to leftist ideology in hopes of filling a void.
How awful for the father. If my son had ever committed such an atrocity, I would have been very ashamed and felt I had failed both him and society.
I have lived in Utah on several occasions – both in Provo and Salt Lake City. I came to admire the Mormons and their general decency and sense of community. However, there were people who lived there who were not as decent or upright. How does that happen?
It’s just human nature. It’s the reason why we have laws, police departments, and prisons.
I expect we’ll learn more about Tyler Robinson’s online life. Social media has become a perfect place for demagogues to spew propaganda and division. It can encourage loose cannons to do crazy things. Less online poison and better reporting from the MSM would be a welcome change. How to effect that change? Ah, that is the question.
So, was the assassin, Tyler Robinson, just a brainwashed patsy, and part of a much larger conspiracy?
According to Utah Governor Cox at a news conference today, Robinson was communicating with some other people on “Discord,” and was given instructions on where to pick up the rifle and some engraved shell casings from a drop site.*
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/who-helped-him-governor-cox-announces-charlie-kirk/#comments
The gun will be traced, and online communications are being investigated. If there were accessories to this assassination, they will be found and arrested.
Ever the Catholic I am, I would say that he allowed himself to be seduced by the “glamor of evil.” He turned to it willingly and knowingly. Seduction is acquiescence on the part of the person being seduced. Blaming his deed on environmental factors — a flawed upbringing, the sturm und drang of youth, spending too much time online — misses the point by a mile. He had choice and agency, and he exercised both, and in a way that most people with similar issues never do and never will.
Read comments supposed to be from him about a drop of the rifle. So it’s providence might be a link to help, we will see.
If they want to not send this down a rabbit hole.
I wonder if this young man thought of the damage to his family when he became an assassin or did he hate them too? Prayers should go to the Robinson family and particularly to his father for acting as he did. It must have been incredibly hard but brave to turn his son in.
IrishOtter49:
From what we know of Robinson he, if guilty (and I strongly believe he is) bears full responsibility for his actions. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone here absolving him of that full responsibility, although I haven’t read every single comment.
I have little doubt there are people online and in person making excuses for him and absolving him of responsibility or even praising them.
However, discussing reasons and influences is neither absolving of responsibility nor making excuses. Not only that, but it is saying (at least, I am saying) that those who killed no one but spread the poisonous lie that Kirk (and Trump, etc.) are fascists or Nazis or that sort of extreme demonization, also bear some responsibility. It is “and” rather than “or.” This does not diminish the adult perp’s responsibility or dilute it. It is a separate, additional although lesser, responsibility on the part of those spreading the propaganda.
“Utah DPS boss says Kirk’s shooter ‘acted alone’ at UVU, but others may be charged”
So Robinson pulled the trigger by himself, but he clearly had help getting the rifle and ammunition.
“OREM, Utah — Authorities do believe the man accused of killing conservative political influencer Charlie Kirk acted alone in carrying out the shooting. However, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason told FOX 13 News they continue to investigate if anyone else had a role in plotting the assassination.
“We will continue to trace his movements and work through the process of him coming from Washington County up here to the university and back, and the interactions he’s had from the time of the shooting until he was taken into custody,” Mason said in an interview on Friday. “We don’t have any formal charges pending against anyone right now. But we will continue to interview witnesses and find out if anybody was involved.”
https://www.fox13now.com/news/politics/utah-dps-boss-says-kirks-shooter-acted-alone-at-uvu-but-others-may-be-charged
In an Instapundit comment thread, a poster said that the Washington Co. Sheriff’s office disavowed him — a retired deputy of the same name? — not Tyler’s dad. Therefore the Dad was or is not LEO.
Tyler’s Mr Robinson also lives in a $600K home — something unlikely for a Deputy Sherrif to be able to afford.
Many are interested in how Tyler was radicalized?
According to this report, Tyler “was pretty much Left in everything” in HS, in contrast to his family (including two brothers, it seems?) who are staunch Republicans.
“Around sophomore year, the friend said, Robinson became more extreme in his political views and would ‘always just be ranting and arguing about them’.”
https://x.com/LokiJulianus/status/1966598599132782786
Thus, his radicalization apparently preceded his semester at Utah State and recent study (it it reported) at Dixie Tech in St. George, UT.
A local side story to PC and Woke revisionism: this SW region of Utah has long been called “Utah’s Dixie” beginning with LDS President and Territorial Goveror Brigham Young, as well as early settlers.
Recently, comes the deracination: it seems “Dixie” — because warm and southerly – was now too triggering, raising cain by calling up the ghostly horrors of Southern Slavery, despite the lack of any early Mormon connection with slavery.
Wikipedia explains: “In 2021, after continued controversy over the use of the term ‘Dixie’ in the school’s name, the Utah State Legislature and the Governor of Utah approved the bill that allowed the school to be renamed as Utah Tech (UT).”
Localism and people’s ties to the past thus rejected and abjured.
Getting back to Tyler, one wonders how this controversy affected him.
Utah is not what it once was and not isolated from outside influence. That said, diversity of individuals, minority of one, for better or worse.
A nation divided, a family divided, are not novel phenomena.
I still haven’t seen any report on the origin of the gun. Did he take his father’s hunting rifle? Was it supplied from somewhere else, perhaps the nebulous Discord contact? Surely they can trace it.
Ok then
https://x.com/jtLOL/status/1966627291112378614
A brief video clip posted online finds Tyler Robinson speaking Salt Lake City in front of the State Capitol. Tyler leads the small crowd in cheers “to fight!” Via X.com:
“Glenda
@Glendaragnarson
10h
Here are the Salt Lake City DSA (Democrat Socialists of America) meeting up 5 days ago to encourage their members to FIGHT!!! Tyler Robinson was a member!!!!”
https://x.com/realCecilKing/status/1966551550588842216
TJ:
Apparently that was an error – not him.
Kate wrote “Surely they can trace [the rifle].”
I am not an expert, but if Antifa or anyone more sophisticated than the crazy punk Robinson is involved, they would have provided a rifle that is hard or impossible to trace.
I am just speculating, but I lean toward a conspiracy, with Robinson as the patsy, rather than a “lone wolf”
like Oswald supposedly was.
There seem to be too many unanswered questions about the Butler attempt on Trump. Maybe Ryan Routh’s trial will also be instructive.
BTW, I read today on a (non-political) hobbyist forum, that Kirk had a “bulletproof” ballistic plate under his shirt, and the shot hit the plate over his heart, was deflected and hit his neck. The poster, who is an Iraq veteran and firearms expert, said he drew his conclusion from watching X videos of the murder.
The rifle appears to be an imported Mauser that has been sporterized. In the ‘90s, huge numbers of Yugoslav M48s, a copy of the Mauser Karabiner 98 kurz, were imported dirt cheap (LT $200 with bayonet). Many converted from harder to find and more expensive 7.92x57mm Mauser (AKA 8mm Mauser) to .30-06 Springfield. Non-sporterized K98/M48 can be loaded with a 5-round stripper clip. No idea on the conversions.
@ TJ > “Tyler’s Mr Robinson also lives in a $600K home — something unlikely for a Deputy Sherrif to be able to afford.”
I saw a post or comment earlier today sneering at his “family mansion” so let me clear that up, I hope.
When we moved into our house in Colorado it cost us a little over $200,000, which I found appalling. This year, the house across the street sold for $640,000.
Others of the same area and vintage routinely go for the same or higher
Nothing in our neighborhood changed in the intervening 20 years, but house prices have increased dramatically. The tax assessors even believe our house is worth the same outrageous amount.
We certainly could not have afforded that price 20 years ago, but we didn’t PAY that price.
I suspect the Tyler family is in roughly the same situation.
And trust me, we don’t live in a “mansion.”
@ Kate > “I don’t remember where I found this link.”
That’s a perennial problem for me as well.
However, a few threads back, I made a comment about the dial vs the switch viewpoints on violence. Your link to Francis Turner’s post sourced that for me.
“Larry Correia has said repeatedly that the left views violence as a knob or dial they can turn up and down, while the right sees it as an on-off switch.”
Larry is a hard-core conservative firebrand, always interesting to read, but NSFW. (Although that’s an outdated warning now; his language, like Joe Rogan’s, is everywhere on the internet, even creeping into “regular” media stories and headlines. I don’t think that’s a good thing. And get off my lawn.)
Francis covers a lot of area in his post, and, although I don’t agree with all of his observations, much of what he says is worth considering.
Larry Correia again, from Instapundit (more reactions at the link below):
https://x.com/monsterhunter45/status/1966532785461727389
At least Glenn recognizes that the group-blame-game is an illegitimate response, but it’s the one the Democrats always start with.
https://instapundit.com/744268/
Links embedded in the text.
This link from the Insty post makes a good point and issues a warning to the Republican leadership:
https://x.com/willchamberlain/status/1966342992664682501
More from Ace, and a bonus updated version of the cartoon showing the Left-Right axis with the “moving center.”
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/416459.php
Several of the links are videos of black “influencers” bailing out of the Democrat boat.
Others are Asian, Hispanic, & White; male & female; gay and not; many young folks.
“The Democrats Have Now Lost the TikTok Generation…”
Of the 18 reactions Ace linked, this one was the most poignant.
https://x.com/EricLDaugh/status/1966307996151197902
“The young man who was speaking to Charlie Kirk before he got shot says, “The point I was trying to make is how peaceful the left was…right before he got shot.”
That’s absolutely brutal.”
The cartoon is pretty brutal also.
https://ace.mu.nu/archives/theleftkeepslefting.jpg
And then there are a lot of links about the lefties who learned first-hand what cancel culture means because they got to experience it this time.
Winner in the category of “We will write anything that gets a few more clicks but don’t expect us to be consistent.”
https://x.com/TArchcast/status/1966349686362746951
Utah is not a hot-bed of left wing activism, except in Salt Lake City, but I decided to check out the university scenes. The colleges have some leftists trying to make head-way, but I couldn’t find anything more recent than these. The administrators were firm about the difference between First Amendment protesting and rule-breaking.
https://www.uvureview.com/news/the-israel-hamas-conflict-uvu-issues-statement-what-you-should-know/
2023-10
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2023/11/17/university-utah-withdrew-its/
2023-11
“Students in MECHA say they feel targeted for speaking out. But the school says they violated policy.”
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2024/04/29/university-utah-students-join-pro/
2024-04
https://kutv.com/news/local/pro-palestine-protesters-demonstrate-at-university-of-utah-salt-lake-county-metro-jail
2025-05
https://kutv.com/news/local/photos-pro-palestine-demonstration-salt-lake-city-university-of-utah-students-anti-war-gaza-end-genocide-israel-ties-divest-police-west-valley-highway-patrol-17-arrested
2024-05
The local story:
https://ksltv.com/local-news/political-activist-charlie-kirk-shot-at-uvu-during-prove-me-wrong-tour/818002/
2025-09-10
Thanks for the information on the rifles, Chases Eagles. So, the gun may not be easily traceable. On the other hand, it also sounds more likely that the shooter got this somewhere other than his family’s hunting rifle collection. My husband has a bolt-action rifle; many deer hunters do.
AesopFan, it appears that the shooter was only briefly in college in Utah. He dropped out, and presumably went deeper into the weird labyrinth of the left-wing internet.
@TJ:Tyler’s Mr Robinson also lives in a $600K home — something unlikely for a Deputy Sherrif to be able to afford.
Houses purchased 10 years ago in Washington County were half as much and mortgages were around 3%, easily affordable for a deputy sheriff if he didn’t buy it yesterday. Doesn’t need Internet sleuths to explain, just an awareness that prices and salaries change over time and that the market price of a house is not the same as what was paid for it, since people generally live in a house for some time.
Ace Pagoda : “I wonder if this young man thought of the damage to his family when he became an assassin or did he hate them too? ”
I wonder if he hated them more, or at least his father. Political acts aren’t necessarily motivated by genuine conviction; sometimes the convictions are just an excuse.
Neo, go easy please — I’m one of the good guys.
Apparently, Tyler was a follower of Nick Fuentes, who hated Kirk because Kirk wasn’t right wing enough.
OK, who’s disoriented now?
Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson lived with transgender partner: source
WASHINGTON — Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter Tyler Robinson was living with a transgender partner who was in the process of transitioning from a male to a female, a law enforcement source confirmed to The Post Saturday.
That individual, who has yet to be identified by the authorities, is now fully cooperating with the FBI on its investigation into the fatal shooting of the conservative activist, the source added. The relationship was first reported by Fox News’ Brooke Singman.
https://nypost.com/2025/09/13/us-news/charlie-kirk-shooter-tyler-robinson-lived-with-transgender-partner/
______________________________________
That would explain a few things.
We’ll see.
That bit about Robinson being a Fuentes follower is unsubstantiated. Friends from high school said Tyler went hard left as a high school sophomore.
AesopFan on September 13, 2025 at 2:08 am:
Yes, the problem with and expansion and use of profanity laced language and diatribes is that when you really want a solid and bracing expletive to emphasize your point, there is nothing left. You end up with the old time equivalent of something like “oh, fudge” or “p-shaw!”.
Separate language issue: Not everyone is a clear and smooth talker, especially extemporaneously. But is it just me or are we finding more and more (usually but not always younger) folks speaking like Valley Girls, where every third word is “like” or “you know” or “right?”… [One person that I respect and admire for the breadth and depth of his knowledge still speaks this way when interviewing guests for his Substack. Because of this I can’t even read the transcript, let alone listen to his commentary (usually). Yet he is an excellent essayist when writing.]
Even good speakers will end up with an occasional uummhhmm or “ugh” or such, rather than be silent until their brain engages fully and properly. But the best do manage to pause quietly when needed.