Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s murder, was radicalized “in a fairly short amount of time,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said, but gave no details.

While speaking with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he said “Nothing stands out the way you would normally expect.”

“You know, this is a good family,” Cox said. “A normal childhood. All of those things that, that you would hope would never lead to something like this. And sadly, it did.”

In her first remarks since his death, Charlie Kirk’s wife Erika Kirk said the movement her husband built “will not die.”

In her first comments after her husband was fatally shot during a public event in Utah Wednesday, Erika Kirk pledged to keep his legacy alive.

“Charlie, I promise I will never let your legacy die, baby,” she said. “I promise I’ll make Turning Point USA the biggest thing that this nation has ever seen.”

Turning Point USA, the political organization founded by Charlie Kirk, caters to conservative youth on American university campuses.

She said when she got home Thursday night, their three-year-old daughter asked: “Where’s daddy?”

“I said, ‘Baby, daddy loves you so much,’” she recalled. “‘Don’t you worry. He’s on a work trip with Jesus so he can afford your blueberry budget.’”

“I can’t wait to see you again one day,” she added, addressing her husband.

Charlie Kirk’s scheduled tour, of university campuses, “The American Comeback Tour,” will continue after his killing, his wife, Erika Kirk, said Friday evening.

“There will be even more tours in the years to come,” she said.

Americafest, Turning Point USA’s annual conference, will still be held in Phoenix, Arizona, in December, she said.

“It will be greater than ever,” she said. “The radio and podcast show that he was so proud of will go on.”

Erika Kirk, the wife of Charlie Kirk, thanked Vice President JD Vance, Second Lady Usha Vance and President Donald Trump for their friendship with her husband and their support since his shooting.

The widow called the vice president a “dear friend” of Charlie Kirk, thanking him and the second lady “for their love and support,” in her first remarks since her husband’s killing.

“You guys honored my husband so well, bringing him home. You both are tremendous,” she said.

Erika Kirk said her husband, Charlie Kirk, “will stand at his savior’s side wearing the glorious crown of a martyr,” in her first public remarks since he was fatally shot at an event Wednesday.

“Charlie always said that when he was gone, he wanted to be remembered for his courage and for his faith,” she said.

She added, “most of all, Charlie loved his children, and he loved me with all of his heart, and I knew that every day.”

Erika Kirk, the wife of Charlie Kirk, thanked local, state and federal law enforcement for arresting the suspect in her husband’s killing.

They “worked tirelessly to capture my husband’s assassin so that he can be brought to justice,” she said.

Charlie Kirk’s wife, Erika Kirk, is speaking publicly for the first time since her husband’s death this week.

The couple had two young children together.

The Turning Point USA YouTube channel is streaming her remarks.

Utah Attorney General Derek Brown cannot say yet if they will pursue the death penalty in the suspect of Charlie Kirk’s murder but said, “everything is on the table.”

“That’s clearly part of the issues that we are looking at,” he said while speaking with CNN’s Erin Burnett.

Some context: President Donald Trump said in an interview this morning he hopes the suspected shooter gets the death penalty. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has also said state officials will “pursue the death penalty” in the case.

Erika Kirk, the wife of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, will make her first public address tonight since her husband’s death.

She will speak at 8:15 p.m. ET, Turning Point USA said in a news release.

We will be monitoring the address and will update with details.

New details are emerging about the man accused of killing Charlie Kirk. Right now, he is being held without bail in a Utah jail after a 33-hour manhunt.

Here’s a recap of what we learned in the last several hours:

• Where things stand: The suspect, Tyler Robinson, is being held on several initial charges, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice but has not yet been formally charged. He is not talking to investigators, sources said.
• What’s next: Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray plans to file charges on Tuesday, according to a statement. The office said it is currently reviewing evidence. Also on Tuesday, the suspect is expected to make his first court appearance.
• How investigators caught him: Robinson’s father recognized the young man as his son when police released photos yesterday, a law enforcement official told CNN. After confessing to his father, the suspect said he would “rather kill myself than turn myself in,” a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said. A family friend ultimately contacted authorities, Utah’s governor said.
• New personal details: The suspect is a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College, Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed, said.
• Discord: The group chat app said its investigation found no evidence the suspect promoted violence or planned the shooting on its platform. Earlier Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the suspect’s roommate showed authorities messages on the app from the suspect.
• Bullet casings: The phrases engraved on ammunition reference video games and an anti-fascist song from Italy, according to an expert. None of the inscriptions are statements or symbols related to transgender people, despite earlier reports they expressed transgender “ideology.”

Roughly 20 recordings of 911 calls from the moments after Charlie Kirk was shot reveal multiple people among hundreds of spectators at his “American Comeback Tour” reported seeing him be struck by the bullet.

One caller said the “current speaker” at Utah Valley University “just got shot in the head,” according to the recordings obtained by CNN.

Another caller described witnessing the shot originating “from above the railing, above the courtyard.”

“He got shot right in the neck,” another 911 caller told dispatch.

Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett told an audience in Indiana today that she is concerned about the heated rhetoric and “grotesque” political violence that has crept into American society.

Barrett was promoting her new memoir at the University of Notre Dame.

Barrett said she is also concerned about “online conversations” and “the way that people treat those with whom they disagree” generally.

“That’s just not a way to run a society,” Barrett said.

Misinformation about the man arrested for the murder of Charlie Kirk has swirled on the social media platform X today.

CNN debunks some online theories below:

• Posts falsely claim suspect Tyler Robinson is seen in a photo wearing a shirt associated with the Democratic Socialists of America. Fact: The photo shows a different man who has no connection to the murder.
• Users have shared false claims that federal records show Robinson was a donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in 2020. Fact: The actual donor is a different man with the same first and last name; the suspect has no record of federal election donations.
• A doctored image purports to show Robinson wearing a pro-Trump shirt. Fact: The image was created from a photo of Robinson wearing a plain shirt without any political messages.
• Users have falsely claimed Robinson is a registered Republican. Fact: Robinson is registered as unaffiliated with a political party and is listed as “inactive,” meaning he hasn’t voted in either of the last two general elections.
• Posts falsely claiming Robinson’s father works or worked in the sheriff’s office in Washington County, Utah. Fact: The sheriff’s office issued a statement debunking the claim, saying a retired deputy who also has the last name Robinson is “NOT connected or related to” the suspect.

A Secret Service agent has been placed on leave after making a social media post criticizing Charlie Kirk for spewing “hate and racism on his show” following the right-wing commentator’s murder.

The agent, Anthony Pough, wrote the Facebook post Wednesday. He said in the post, “At the end of the day, you answer to GOD, and speak things into existence. You can only circumvent karma, she doesnt leave.”

He was placed on leave shortly after making the post.

In a statement, the Secret Service said they “will not tolerate behavior that violates our code of conduct.”

“This employee was immediately put on administrative leave, and an investigation has begun,” the statement said. CNN has attempted to reach Pough for comment.

The father of the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect urged his son to turn himself in to authorities yesterday after he confessed, to which the suspect responded: “I would rather kill myself than turn myself in,” said CNN chief law enforcement analyst John Miller, citing a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation who characterized the conversation.

Tyler Robinson’s father was becoming convinced the shooter might be his son after recognizing him in photos released by authorities and he confronted him. “Tyler, is this you? This looks like you,” he asked the 22-year-old, the law enforcement source told Miller.

The suspect’s father then persuaded him to talk to a youth pastor who works with the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the US Marshal’s Service. During that conversation, Robinson admitted to the crime, according to the source.

Robinson was taken into custody around 10 p.m. local time last night, the FBI said.

Earlier today, Utah Governor Spencer Cox described how authorities discovered phrases engraved on ammunition that was found with a rifle near where Charlie Kirk was murdered.

Cox read out those inscriptions at a news conference — but the phrases themselves are full of memes and jokes potentially meant for an online audience, one expert said.

The alleged shooter references video games and an anti-fascist song from Italy, according to Jamie Cohen, a professor at Queens College, City University of New York and an expert in memes and digital culture.

Cohen, who has written extensively about the internet and its culture, said the engravings could indicate that the suspect is an “extremely online person” and may have been trying to communicate with his inner circle.

Particularly in the context of mass shooters and extremist groups, memes are often designed to attract media attention and disseminate that group’s message into the mainstream, Cohen said.

Cohen said memes often refer to other memes, which can make it hard to know exactly what the suspect was trying to convey. “Memes contain multitudes,” Cohen said, noting that you have to take out a lot of context to make them shareable. So — as with some things on the internet — the messages could mean nothing at all, he added.

With that in mind, here’s what some of the inscriptions might mean:

• Up arrow symbol, right arrow, and three down arrows: This could be in reference to the video game Helldivers 2, describing how a player would use the controller to drop a bomb.
• “Hey, fascist! Catch!”: Gov. Cox, at the news conference, interpreted this as a straightforward message. “I think that speaks for itself,” he said. But, it also could be a reference to the Helldivers game, which itself is a satirical commentary on fascism, as something the player says when they drop a bomb.
• “Bella Ciao”: Not exactly a meme, this phrase refers to the Italian anti-fascist song from WWII, Cohen said.
• “Notices bulges OwO what’s this?” This meme comes from furry subculture and is a reference to roleplay or cringy flirting, Cohen explained.

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly characterized details about the furry subculture.

Utah County Attorney’s Office is expecting that suspected shooter Tyler Robinson will make his first court appearance on Tuesday after attorney Jeff Gray files charges in the killing of Charlie Kirk on the same day.

“Assuming all goes as planned and we file charges on Tuesday, Mr. Robinson’s first appearance will be Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. MDT,” according to Christopher Ballard, chief of staff at the public information office at Utah County attorney’s office.

It will be a virtual hearing, he added.

CNN’s Jeremy Harland contributed to this report.

Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray plans to file charges on Tuesday in relation to the shooting and killing of Charlie Kirk, according to a statement from the Utah County Attorney’s Office.

The office said it is currently reviewing evidence to determine which charges to file.

Gray is also expected to hold a news conference Tuesday, where he will make a public statement on the case.

CNN’s Jennifer Henderson contributed reporting to this post.

Discord, the group chat app, said its investigation found no evidence that the suspect promoted violence or planned the shooting and killing of Charlie Kirk on its platform.

Earlier today, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox detailed that the suspect’s roommate showed them messages on the app about the suspect stating his need to retrieve the rifle left in the bush.

Hoffman said Discord has removed the account of the suspected shooter, and it will continue to coordinate with law enforcement.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragedy and extend our condolences to the Kirk family and everyone affected,” he added.

For the approximately 40 hours between the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the announcement today that a suspect had been apprehended, finger-pointing reigned on the right.

Some Republicans and right-wing pundits and influencers spoke of “war” and their side becoming radicalized in response. President Donald Trump, who’d floated cracking down on leftists and liberal organizations he baselessly blamed for political violence, topped it off Friday morning by suggesting conservative extremists have been radicalized for legitimate reasons, while saying that “radicals on the left are the problem.”

At a time when politicians and presidents usually call for calm and unity, his rhetoric was throwing fuel on the fire. And it wasn’t difficult to see how that could lead to even more ugly places.

But the tragedy in Utah also happens to have cast a spotlight on Utah Gov. Spencer Cox — a Republican who has spent years calling for quite the opposite approach: a more civil and less angry version of politics. And over the last 24 hours, he’s seized the moment.

During two news conferences, last night and today, it’s Cox who did most of the talking. He used that time to project a far different message than that of Trump and leading MAGA figures.

He at one point explicitly decried the tendency to “point the finger at the other side,” something Trump and others have repeatedly done.

Read more about Gov. Cox’s role here

A major break in the hunt for a suspect in Charlie Kirk’s fatal shooting came Thursday, after the FBI released photos of a man caught on surveillance video and asked for the public’s help in identifying him.

Tyler Robinson’s father recognized the young man as his son, a law enforcement official told CNN. When Robinson was confronted by his father, he confessed, another source said.

On Thursday evening, “a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend,” who contacted authorities, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said.

Robinson was taken into custody around 10 p.m. local time Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

“His family and a friend helped to deliver him into custody of law enforcement in Washington County,” Cox said.

Other clues pointed to Robinson as the suspect, the governor said, such as his clothes and a car spotted Wednesday morning near the scene of the shooting.

Investigators also spoke with one of the suspect’s relatives, who said Robinson “had become more political in recent years,” the governor said.

“The family member referenced a recent incident in which Robinson came to dinner prior to September 10, and … Robinson mentioned Charlie Kirk was coming to UVU,” Cox said.

The dinner conversation included Robinson saying he didn’t like Kirk’s viewpoints, his relative told investigators, according to Cox. “The family member also confirmed Robinson had a gray Dodge Challenger” – the type of car seen in the surveillance footage at UVU.

Authorities also interviewed Robinson’s roommate, who showed investigators comments attributed to Robinson on Discord, the governor said.

They included “messages affiliated with the contact ‘Tyler’ stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush” and leaving “the rifle wrapped in a towel,” Cox said.

CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz and Holmes Lybrand contributed to this report.

None of the bullet casings recovered alongside the gun officials say was used to kill Charlie Kirk appear to have been engraved with statements or symbols related to transgender people, despite earlier reports that they expressed transgender “ideology.”

Officials who spoke during a news conference earlier today did not address whether the inscriptions included references to trans people, but none of the writings they described appear to have any connection to that community.

The unfired casings did bear statements that included “Hey, fascist! Catch!” and “If you read this, you are gay. LMAO,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said.

More background: CNN has reported that a preliminary report sent by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said that agents found engravings that they interpreted as “expressing transgender and anti-fascist ideology” on ammunition inside the recovered rifle.

These initial reports, also called bulletins, typically include all information gathered in an investigation so that agents anywhere will know what is being collected — but the information is not always correct and is preliminary.

Two law enforcement sources told CNN that analysts initially interpreted one of the markings, which included a series of arrows, to be a connection to the transgender community.

However, the inscription — described by Cox as “up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrow symbols” — has no apparent connection to transgender people.

CNN’s Evan Perez, Scott Glover and Hannah Rabinowitz contributed to this report.

The man arrested in connection with the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk is in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College – one of 16 Utah System of Higher Education institutions – said a spokesperson for another school in the system, Utah Valley University, where Kirk was killed.

Tyler Robinson is a third-year student in the apprenticeship program at the school, the spokesperson said. He grew up in Washington, Utah, about 5 miles from Dixie Technical College and a 3 1/2-hour drive from Utah Valley University,

Robinson also attended Utah State University for one semester in 2021 and received college credit through Utah Tech University from 2019 to 2021 while he was in high school, the spokesperson said.

The man who allegedly shot and killed Charlie Kirk on Wednesday is not talking to investigators, two sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

One source said that the man, Tyler Robinson, was talking with some law enforcement initially but quickly went silent after he “lawyered up” this morning. It’s unclear what he discussed with officers beforehand.

The man suspected of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk is being held without bail in Utah County Jail on the orders of a state judge.

According to court records obtained by CNN, Judge Shawn Rice Howell signed an order to hold Tyler Robinson this morning.

Court documents say that Robinson has no prior misdemeanor or felony convictions.

We reported earlier that Robinson is being held on several initial charges, including aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice, but has not yet been formally charged.

Authorities have taken the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing, Tyler Robinson, into custody, they announced this morning. With that, they offered major details on how the search unfolded and how they gathered evidence.

Here is everything you need to know:

Who is Robinson: The 22-year-old grew up in the suburban community of Washington, Utah, and was a high-achieving student. He had no party affiliation and didn’t vote in the two most recent elections, voter registration records show. But a family member told investigators Robinson “had become more political in recent years” and had lashed out at Kirk, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said today.

Details of arrest: A family member of Robinson reached out to a family friend, who then “contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident,” Cox said. Robinson was taken into custody in Utah at 10 p.m. local time yesterday — 33 hours after Kirk’s killing, FBI Director Kash Patel said.

Evidence: Robinson posted messages on Discord, a group chat app, which his roommate showed to investigators, according to Cox. The message contents included:

• Robinson stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point
• Leaving the rifle in a bush
• Visually watching the area where a rifle was left
• Reference to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel
• Reference to engraving bullets and the rifle being unique
• Mention of Robinson changing outfits

What is known about the weapon: Investigators discovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel, Cox said. The casings found with the rifle were engraved with inscriptions that included the words, “Hey fascist! Catch!” Cox said.

Surveillance footage from the scene: Investigators said surveillance video showed the suspect arriving on campus Wednesday morning in a Dodge Challenger. He was seen in a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black hat with a white logo and light-colored shoes, Cox said. When encountered by investigators, the suspect was wearing clothes “consistent” with those seen on video, the governor said.

We’ve learned a lot this morning about the FBI’s timeline of the 33-hour period between the murder of Charlie Kirk and the apprehension of the suspect.

Here’s how the investigation has unfolded over the past few days, according to officials (Times are listed in Mountain Daylight Time, the local time zone of the shooting scene):

Wednesday, September 10:

• 12:23 p.m. MT – Kirk is in the middle of responding to a question during the first stop of his “American Comeback Tour” when he is shot in front of hundreds of spectators, sending the crowd screaming and fleeing.
• 12:39 p.m. – The first FBI agents arrive along with local chiefs of police, FBI Director Kash Patel later says. Planes are immediately mobilized “to transport forensic evidence” and send more bureau assets to the scene.
• 2:40 p.m. – President Donald Trump announces on his Truth Social platform that Kirk has died. “No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” said Trump.
• 4:21 p.m. – FBI Director Kash Patel says on X that “the subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.” The statement is contradicted by local law enforcement, and Patel later says the person who was in custody was “released after an interrogation.”

Thursday, September 11:

• 9:48 a.m. – The FBI releases its first photos of a person of interest. They show a man in sunglasses and a dark blue cap wearing a black T-shirt with a large American flag and bald eagle on the front walking up a stairwell.
• 10:45 a.m. – The FBI announces a $100,000 reward “for information leading to the identification and arrest of the individual(s) responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk.”
• 7:52 p.m. – Authorities release new surveillance video showing the suspect running across a rooftop overlooking the event, jumping to the ground and then leaving the scene.
• 10:00 p.m. – Tyler Robinson, 22, is taken into custody, according to Patel’s timeline. A law enforcement official speaking to CNN says Robinson had been identified by his father based on the FBI photos, and Robinson confessed to his father when confronted.

Friday, September 12:

• 1:58 a.m. – Robinson is booked into the Utah County Jail in Spanish Fork, according to the sheriff’s office.
• 6:03 a.m. – President Trump announces the arrest of a suspect during an interview on Fox News in New York. “I think with a high degree of certainty we have him in custody,” the president says.
• 8:04 a.m. – “We got him,” says Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, publicly announcing the arrest of Robinson for the murder of Kirk.

This post has been updated with additional information. CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Ed Lavandera contributed to this report.

Federal prosecutors are evaluating possible charges they could bring against the suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.

Those charges could be filed by the Justice Department as soon as this afternoon, the sources said.

Tyler Robinson is currently being held at the Utah County Jail on multiple initial state charges, including murder. It is unclear if any federal charges would be in addition to or replace state charges.

President Donald Trump said in an interview this morning that he hopes the suspected shooter gets the death penalty. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has also said that state officials will “pursue the death penalty” in this case.

The suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, is being held at a county jail in Spanish Fork, Utah, on multiple initial charges, an officer of the Utah County Jail told CNN this morning.

The charges that allow Robinson to be held include aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice, the officer said.

Robinson has not been charged formally yet, and initial charging documents aren’t available at this time, other authorities in Utah say.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said this morning that the state will be working on formal charging documents in the coming days. Those documents would include additional information on probable cause for a case.

“The county attorney will be working very closely with Mr. Kirk’s family, as those documents and decisions are prepared and made,” Cox said.

Authorities have three days to file those documents in preparation for a preliminary court hearing, where Robinson would first go before a judge, likely early next week, the governor said.

Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of killing Charlie Kirk, was a high-achieving student from a small Utah suburb.

He had no party affiliation and didn’t vote in the two most recent elections, voter registration records show. But a family member told investigators that Robinson “had become more political in recent years” and had lashed out at Kirk, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said today.

Robinson grew up in the city of Washington, Utah, and earned a scholarship to attend Utah State University, according to public records and social media.

A Facebook video his mother posted in 2021 featured Robinson reading a letter about his resident presidential scholarship at the school.

Read more on what we know about the suspect.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox encouraged people not to spread the gruesome social media footage of Charlie Kirk’s murder, part of a broader criticism of violent imagery online.

“This is not good for us. It is not good to consume,” said Cox. “Social media is a cancer on our society right now.”

Cox added that “we are not wired as human beings” to process hatred and violence to which people are constantly exposed on the internet.

“I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community,” he said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called for the country to unite and always believe that Americans can help “change the course of history.”

“I desperately call on every American — Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us — to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.”

The governor had just been crediting what he said was Kirk’s commitment to open dialogue.

Cox then quoted an author and friend who said, “I’m not optimistic, but I am hopeful. And hope is the virtue that sits between the vices of optimism and pessimism. Hope is the idea that good things are going to happen because we can make them so.”

“I still believe in our country,” the governor said, “and I know Charlie Kirk believed in our country. I still believe that there is more good among us than evil, and I still believe that we can change the course of history.”

The fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk is a “watershed in America history,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Friday, comparing it with the political and cultural upheaval of the late 1960s.

“I absolutely believe that this is a watershed in American history,” the Republican governor said. “The question is: What kind of watershed? And that chapter remains to be written. Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history or the beginning of a darker chapter in our history?

“If you look at true political assassinations in this country, of someone of this stature, this feels a lot like the late ’60s. And having one so gruesomely displayed on camera, in all of our hands and in all of our pockets, we are not wired as human beings, biologically, historically, we have not evolved in a way that we are capable of processing those types of violent imagery.”

Suspected shooter Tyler Robinson was not a student at the Utah Valley University, where Charlie Kirk was shot and killed, Utah’s governor said.

“He was living, and had lived for a long time, with his family in Washington County,” Gov. Spencer Cox said today.

It is believed the suspected shooter in Charlie Kirk’s killing acted alone, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in Friday’s news conference.

Asked by a reporter if authorities believe Tyler Robinson acted alone, Cox said, “Yes, but the investigation is ongoing.”

“We do not at this time have any information that would lead to any additional arrests,” the governor said.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox encouraged the young, politically active fans of Charlie Kirk to resist an urge to lash out violently after his assassination.

“You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option,” Cox said.

But the governor urged them to keep their focus on the person authorities say pulled the trigger.

The governor cited recent social media posts from Kirk encouraging people to have “a human connection with someone you disagree with.”

“Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now,” Cox said. “Not by pretending differences don’t matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.”

The governor added that people of all political persuasions should not try to shut down debate.

“Words are not violence. Violence is violence.”

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said some of Charlie Kirk’s own words have helped him during this time.

“He said, ‘Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them so much,’” Cox read.

Even as violence flares everywhere, authorities are invested in the case of Charlie Kirk’s killing because the attack “cuts to the very foundation of who we are,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said during Friday’s news conference.

The “political assassination” of Kirk is “much bigger than an attack on an individual,” Cox said.

Calling Kirk a champion of free expression, Cox said, “we will never be able to solve all the other problems, including the violence problems that people are worried about, if we can’t have clash of ideas safely and securely.”

FBI Director Kash Patel delivered a message to his slain friend Charlie Kirk during an ongoing news conference:

Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, was taken into custody at 10 p.m. local time Thursday in Utah, FBI Director Kash Patel announced.

“In less than 36 hours – 33 to be precise – thanks to the full weight of the federal government and leading out with the partners here in the state of Utah and Gov. Cox, the suspect was apprehended in historic time period,” said Patel.

“Forensic evidence has already been evaluated” by the FBI, according to Patel, with over 11,000 leads being checked, as possible.

Suspected shooter Tyler Robinson’s roommate showed investigators messages on Discord, a group chat app, where Robinson talked about retrieving a rifle, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

The roommate opened Discord and “allowed investigators to take photos of the screen as each message was shown by Robinson’s mate,” Cox said today at a news briefing.

“The messages also refer to engraving bullets and a mention of a scope, and the rifle being unique. Messages from the contact Tyler also mentioned that he had changed outfits,” Cox noted.

Authorities pored over surveillance footage from Utah Valley University and saw the suspect arriving on campus Wednesday morning in a Dodge Challenger, Gov. Spencer Cox said.

He was seen in a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black hat with a white logo and light-colored shoes, Cox said.

When encountered by investigators this morning, the suspect was wearing clothes “consistent” with those seen on video, the governor said.

Investigators discovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel and inscriptions engraved on casings found with the rifle, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said.

“Inscriptions on the three unfired casings read ‘Hey, fascist! Catch!” he said, adding there was an “‘Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol and three down arrow symbols.’”

The suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk, Tyler Robinson, spoke negatively of the victim before the shooting, a family member told investigators, Utah’s governor said.

“Investigators interviewed a family member of Robinson who stated that Robinson had become more political in recent years,” Gov. Spencer Cox said Friday in a news conference.

The suspect specifically mentioned Kirk during a family dinner, Cox said.

“The family member also stated Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate,” Cox said.

Update: This post has been updated to include Cox’s full quote about what the family member told investigators.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said officials have Tyler Robinson, the suspect accused of the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.

“We got him. On the evening of September 11, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident,” Cox said during a news conference on Friday.

The father of the Charlie Kirk shooting suspect who was taken into custody identified his son from photos that had been made public, according to a law enforcement official.

The father told his son to turn himself in. He also called a youth pastor to assist. The pastor called the US Marshals, who took the suspect into custody.

The shooting suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk is a 22-year-old from Washington, Utah, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.

A news conference about the latest information on the investigation into the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk was pushed back 30 minutes, to 9:30 a.m. ET, the Utah governor’s office announced.

The postponement came after President Donald Trump told Fox News that a suspect was detained after information from “somebody that was very close to him.”

Two sources told CNN that the man in custody confessed to his father that he was the shooter.

Trump’s interview in New York was continuing at the originally scheduled time for the news conference.

Chris Swecker, former FBI assistant director for the Criminal Investigative Division, said officials will move from trying to identify the suspect, who killed conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, to building a prosecution case.

Officials will have to resist the urge to put too much information out there to the public to protect the trial and witnesses’ memory, Swecker said.

“They’ll bring in someone who has some expertise in this area, demonstrated experience, and they’ll see what they can get out of him. But in the meantime, they’re going to go through the process of matching the forensic evidence up with him. Now you’re building towards a prosecution and a trial.”

Swecker said they will get an arrest warrant and then an indictment, which he said would probably be a state murder charge.

“There’s a whole lot of investigation now that will focus not on the manhunt part, but on the building the prosecution part, matching all the evidence, up to him and backtracking through all of that and then, you know of course, they’re going to be at his house, executing a search warrant.

“They’re going to be gathering evidence from whatever devices he has. They’ll go through all of that,” he said.

Two of the sources said that the man in custody confessed to his father that he was the shooter.

His father told authorities and said he had secured his son until he could be formally detained.

The man now in police custody being questioned in the assassination of Charlie Kirk was found with the assistance of someone who knew him, according to President Donald Trump.

“Essentially somebody that was very close to him turned him in,” Trump said on “Fox and Friends” Friday morning.

“That happens when you have some of those good shots,” said the president, referring to clearer photos of the suspect released Thursday by the FBI.

Trump said the tipster was a “person involved with law enforcement, but was a person of faith. A minister.”

The father of the person taken into custody cooperated with investigators, Trump said.

The president acknowledged he received only a short briefing prior to the interview, and said, “I’m always subject to correction, but I’m just giving you based on what I’m hearing.”

President Donald Trump suggested this morning that Charlie Kirk’s political organization, Turning Point USA, will continue to do its work to mobilize and turn out young voters following Kirk’s death.

“He had a passion for this. I spoke to his wife yesterday. She’s like devastated, but in between the devastation, they want to keep Turning Point going,” he said on Fox News.

Trump said that there have been donation offers to the organization.

“They want to keep Turning Point going. They think they can do that. He had a very good staff,” the president said.

Some context: Kirk and Turning Point USA were instrumental in securing Trump’s 2024 return to the White House, including a major investment into get-out-the-vote operations in Arizona, a key battleground state that Trump flipped back from President Joe Biden.

President Donald Trump said today that left-wing radicals “are the problem,” implying that right-wing radicals are not — comments that come amid a scourge of politically motivated violence.

“I’ll tell you something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I couldn’t care less. The radicals on the right oftentimes are radical because they don’t want to see crime,” the president said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.”

He continued, “The radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy.”

That assessment comes in a moment of intensifying polarization that has seen many horrifying and dangerous events targeting both Republicans and Democrats, most recently the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

Trump himself was a target last year in Butler, Pennsylvania, and later on a Florida golf course. In June, Minnesota House Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, were murdered in their home. There was an alleged arson attack on the home of Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in April. And the CEO of United Healthcare was shot in Midtown Manhattan last year.

President Donald Trump said this morning that he hopes that Charlie Kirk’s killer gets the death penalty.

The president — who announced during an interview on “Fox & Friends” that authorities have a suspect in custody — called Kirk “the finest person,” while blasting the shooter, who law enforcement has not yet named.

Later in the interview, he added that Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signaled he’d seek the penalty for Kirk’s shooter.

“In Utah, they have the death penalty, and you have a very good governor there,” Trump said. “The governor, I’ve gotten to know him, the governor is very intent on the death penalty in this case.”

Pressed if Kirk’s shooting was a “one-off,” isolated case, Trump said it “appears to be.”

The president also said he hadn’t watched video of Kirk’s death after several clips of Kirk’s shooting on the Utah Valley University campus were posted on social media.

“I didn’t want to watch, I heard about it,” Trump said. “I would have never made a good doctor, let me put it that way. I mean, I heard, I heard enough — I didn’t want to watch it, I didn’t want to I didn’t want to remember Charlie that way.”

A person is in custody and being questioned in connection to the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, according to four sources familiar with the matter.

The person is still being questioned as of Friday morning, the sources said.

President Trump just said in an interview on Fox News: “I think with a high degree of certainty, we have him” and he is in custody.

President Donald Trump suggested Friday that the suspect in the Charlie Kirk shooting is “in custody.”

“I think with a high degree of certainty we have him in custody,” Trump said during an appearance on Fox News.

Trump said that someone “very close to him turned him in” and said that it would be announced later Friday.

He appeared to indicate that the person was found via a minister, who ultimately got the person’s father involved.

“It was a minister, and the minister went to a friend – a minister who’s involved in law enforcement, by the way, and his good friend is a top US marshal, and they took it from there and then it was a father got involved,” he said.

The president declined to say whether the father was aware of his son’s alleged crime.

The president added, “We have the person that we think is the person we’re looking for, but they drove into police headquarters and he’s there.”

But he cautioned that the news was “subject to change.”

State and federal officials will hold a news conference at 9 a.m. ET about the manhunt for the person who killed conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, the Utah governor’s office announced.

Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox, FBI Director Kash Patel, Utah Department of Public Safety Director Beau Mason, and FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls are scheduled to be in attendance.

Authorities have been searching for the shooter and released footage they said shows the suspect fleeing after the killing of Kirk.