Officials on Friday arrested a suspect who they say shot and killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk, two days after the shocking scene at a Utah university.
The suspect was identified as Tyler Robinson, 22, of Utah. He was not a student at Utah Valley University, a school spokesperson said. Officials believe he acted alone.
Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck from a rooftop Wednesday as he was at a speaking engagement at Utah Valley University in Orem, officials said, and he was later pronounced dead.
President Donald Trump, a close ally of Kirk's, announced the news of Kirk's death in a post on Truth Social.
"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," Trump wrote Wednesday. "No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie. He was loved and admired by ALL, especially me, and now, he is no longer with us."
Here's what we know about the shooting.
When was Kirk shot?
Kirk was discussing mass shootings in the United States on Wednesday in the first stop of his "American Comeback Tour" when a single shot rang out at around 12:20 p.m., striking him in the neck.
The moment Kirk was shot was captured on video from multiple angles.
Witnesses described seeing Kirk slump backward before he hit the ground as chaos erupted among event attendees, who ran for cover.
“I saw a bunch of blood come out of Charlie,” witness Justin Hickens told NBC News’ Tom Llamas. “I saw his body kind of kick back and go limp, and everybody dropped to the ground.”
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Another witness, Tyler McGettigan, told NBC News he was surprised that he wasn't asked to go through security to get into the event. He also said that no one checked his ticket when entering and that no metal detectors were posted outside.
Kirk was whisked away by his team and taken in a private vehicle to the hospital, where he later died.
The gunman appeared to have fired the fatal shot from the rooftop of a building about 200 yards from where Kirk was speaking to a crowd of thousands. The person was wearing all black and disappeared after the shooting, Utah Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said Wednesday.
Investigators believe the shooter had the rifle concealed the entire time, from when the person entered the campus to the shooting, Mason said.
Who is the suspect?
The FBI released photos Thursday of a person of interest it was seeking in connection with the shooting. He was identified Friday as Robinson, who does not have a prior criminal record, according to NBC News' search of state and national public records associated with his name and date of birth.
He was arrested early Friday morning and will face charges of aggravated murder, felony discharge of firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice as a felony in the first degree.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a Friday news conference that a family member recognized the suspect from the photo and reached out to a family friend, who then reported the suspect to the Washington County Sheriff's Office with the information that the suspect had either confessed or implied that he had carried out the shooting.
The photos shared Thursday showed a person walking up stairs wearing dark jeans, a black long-sleeve shirt with an American flag and an eagle on it, a black hat and black sunglasses. In a second set of photos, the person has a black backpack.
Authorities released a video Thursday night showing a person dressed in black who fled in the moments after the shooting. The video showed the person run on top of the roof of a campus building, clamber down and walk off toward a wooded area where investigators later found a rifle believed to be used in Wednesday’s fatal shooting.
Cox said Friday the suspect arrived on the UVU campus Wednesday at 8:29 a.m. in a gray Dodge Challenger, which a family member later confirmed to investigators is the car the suspect drove.
He was wearing a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts and a black hat with a white logo, as seen in surveillance videos, Cox said. He later added that messages written by the suspect on Discord indicated that he had changed clothes at some point.
Mason said Thursday that security video tracked the shooter in stairwells, going up to and across the roof where the person filed the fatal shot, he said.
A member of the man's family said the suspect had become more political in recent years, and said at a recent dinner that the suspect said Kirk was coming to UVU. The family member said the pair talked about how they didn't like Kirk or his viewpoints, Cox said.
The suspect's roommate showed investigators the Discord messages, Cox said, including ones that said he needed to get a rifle from a drop point and another about leaving that rifle in a bush. There were other messages indicating that the suspect was watching the spot where he had left the rifle and that it was wrapped in a towel, which is how investigators found it Thursday.
Shortly after the shooting, authorities took two people into custody, but both were released Wednesday, and officials said they had “no current ties” to the shooting.
What kind of gun did the suspect use?
The shooter used a Mauser model 98 bolt-action rifle, Cox said Friday, a high-powered weapon that had a scope mounted onto it. It was recovered in a wooded area wrapped in a towel, Robert Bohls, special agent in charge of the FBI, said Thursday.
There were inscriptions on casings found within the rifle, Cox said. The inscription on the fired casing said: “notices, bulges, OWO, what’s this?”
Three unfired casings also had inscriptions, Cox said.
One read, “Hey fascist! Catch!” with an up arrow, a right arrow and three down arrows.
The second said, “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,” likely referencing the Italian song.
The third, “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.”
Who was Charlie Kirk?
Kirk was an influential conservative activist and a co-founder of Turning Point USA, a nonprofit organization that promotes conservative political ideals to young people.
He often spoke at high schools and on college campuses, engaging in debate with the younger generation on topics such as gun violence and transgender rights.
Kirk, also a controversial podcaster, attached himself and his group to Trump during the 2016 election, becoming a staunch supporter of Trump's politics and administration. He also made frequent appearances on Fox News.
Kirk promoted the idea that the 2020 election was stolen, and his group bused people to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed it. He was a close friend of Vice President JD Vance and campaigned alongside Vance and Trump last year, speaking on the first night of the Republican National Convention in July.
Authorities have said the shooting was a “targeted attack” and a “political assassination.”
Cox, the governor, said Utah officials plan to seek the death penalty.
