Former Friend Drops Chilling Details About Charlie Kirk Assassin
A former high school friend of Tyler Robinson — the 22-year-old accused of assassinating conservative leader Charlie Kirk — described him as a committed leftist who clashed politically with his own Republican family.
“He was pretty left on everything,” the friend told The Guardian in an interview Friday, requesting anonymity. “The rest of his family was very hard Republican. He was the only member of his family that was really leftist.”
The friend said Robinson’s views radicalized during his sophomore year, when he became increasingly combative. “He would always just be ranting and arguing about them,” the friend recalled.
Robinson also immersed himself in video games, which reportedly influenced details of the crime. The friend pointed to the engravings on Robinson’s bullets, explaining that the arrows were a reference to the popular game Helldivers 2 and symbolized “calling in a big bomb … called the 500 kilogram.”
Even so, the friend admitted he was shocked to learn Robinson had allegedly carried out a political assassination. “I knew he [Robinson] had strong political views, but I never thought it would even go near that far,” he said.
President Donald J. Trump confirmed Robinson’s arrest Friday morning during a live interview on Fox & Friends, saying the suspect was turned in by someone close to him.
“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump said from the network’s Manhattan studio. “Somebody who was very close to him turned him in … through a minister who was involved with law enforcement.”
The president did not name Robinson at the time, but the FBI later identified him during a press briefing.
Trump made clear his expectations for justice: “I hope he’s going to be found guilty, and I hope he gets the death penalty. What he did — Charlie Kirk was the finest person and he didn’t deserve this.”
Authorities believe Robinson fired a single rifle shot from an elevated position roughly 200 yards away, striking Kirk in the throat as he addressed students at Utah Valley University. Eyewitness videos captured the horrifying moment as thousands of attendees screamed and scrambled for safety.
Kirk, 31, co-founder of Turning Point USA and a father of two, had just fielded a question about recent mass shootings by transgender individuals when the bullet struck him.
President Trump said he deliberately avoided watching the graphic videos of the assassination. “I heard about it… I would have never made a good doctor, let me put it that way,” Trump told Fox. “I mean, I heard enough. I didn’t want to watch it… I didn’t want to remember Charlie that way.”
The manhunt for Kirk’s killer mobilized multiple agencies, including the FBI, Orem Police, the Utah Department of Public Safety, and Utah Valley University Police. In the early hours, a different individual was briefly detained and released before Robinson was identified as the primary suspect. The FBI even set up a dedicated tip line and offered a $100,000 reward to the public for information.
As news of Kirk’s death spread, President Trump paid tribute to his longtime ally in a moving Truth Social post: “The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie.”
Kirk’s murder has left a devastating void in the conservative movement — but also sharpened resolve among his allies to finish the work he started.