Kirk suspect’s text messages read out as charges laid
Prosecutors in the state of Utah say they will seek the death penalty for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson, as texts to his roommate have been read out.
Utah prosecutors will seek the death penalty for Tyler Robinson, after formally charging him over the alleged assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.
Robinson, 22, is accused of firing the single rifle shot from a rooftop sniper’s nest that pierced Kirk’s neck last Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, about 65 kilometres south of Salt Lake City.
Utah County District Attorney Jeffrey Gray said his office had filed seven counts against Robinson, including aggravated murder, obstruction of justice for disposing of evidence and witness tampering for directing his roommate to delete texts.
Gray said he had decided to seek the death penalty “independently, based solely on the available evidence and circumstances and nature of the crime”.
“The murder of Charlie Kirk is an American tragedy,” he said.
Gray read out alleged text messages from Robinson to his roommate — a biological male transitioning to female — with whom he was in a romantic relationship.
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After the shooting, Robinson apparently messaged his roommate on September 10 and said: “Drop what you’re doing, look under my keyboard.”
Under the keyboard, there was a note that read: “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk, and I’m going to take it.”
The roommate sent a text back to Robinson asking: “What? You’re joking.”
Robinson said he would be able to return home once he had retrieved his hidden rifle.
“To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you,” he wrote.
The roommate said: “You weren’t the one who did it right????”
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Robinson: “I am, I’m sorry.”
The roommate: “I thought they caught the person?”
Robinson: “No, they grabbed some crazy old dude, then interrogated someone in similar clothing.”
The roommate asked why Robinson did it.
“I’ve had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” Robinson allegedly said.
The killing, which was captured in graphic video clips that went viral on the internet, sparked denunciations of political violence across the ideological spectrum. But it has also unleashed a wave of partisan blame-casting and concerns that Kirk’s murder might beget more bloodshed.
Authorities have not publicly identified a motive for the killing, although Kirk’s wife and other supporters were quick to cast him as a martyr for their cause.
Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder and head of the conservative student movement Turning Point USA and a key ally of US President Donald Trump, was speaking at an event attended by 3000 people when he was gunned down.
Robinson, a third-year student of an electrical apprenticeship at a state technical college, initially escaped in the pandemonium following the shooting.
He was arrested last Thursday night (local time) at his parents’ house, about 420 kilometres south-west of the crime scene, after relatives and a family friend alerted authorities that Robinson had implicated himself in the shooting, according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox.
Robinson was scheduled to appear via video feed from jail on Tuesday afternoon in Utah County Justice Court in Provo.
-with AP/AAP
