America's Talking - 'We got him:' Kirk shooting suspect in custody

Starting point is 00:00:00 Greetings, everyone, and welcome to America's Talking, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulip, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire service. The suspect in Wednesday's assassination of Turning Point USA founder and Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk was taken into custody late Thursday. The suspect was identified as Tyler Robinson, 22 of Utah. Joining me to discuss this is the Center Square reporter Esther Wickham, who has been covering the stories since the Wednesday assassination.

Starting point is 00:00:29 Aster, tell us what authorities said at Friday's news conference. So less than 48 hours after the brutal assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, the suspect has been identified and taken into custody the evening of Thursday, September 11th. The governor of Utah Spencer Cox, as well as the director of FBI, Cash Patel, and other law enforcement officials held a press conference. this morning identifying that, you know, they had brought Tyler Robinson into custody. They retrieved him due to a family member, essentially turning him in. President Trump prior to the press

Starting point is 00:01:13 conference confirmed this. There's a lot of speculation of, you know, who that person specifically is, but the department released that, you know, it was a family member that tipped the law enforcement officers in and brought him to justice. after that had happened, law enforcement through the press conference released that they were interviewing family members of the suspect. And they said that in recent years, Robinson had become more political, being explicit in his dislike of Charlie Kirk. And as they continued, they identified one of Robinson's roommates sharing, various information on a communication platform called Discord that referenced Robinson actually talking about retrieving the bolt action rifle, which has been identified, was the weapon that

Starting point is 00:02:11 killed Charlie Kirk. And the messages referred to talking about the rifle at a drop point, referring to reference engraving on the bullets that were found in the rifle. So just pivotal information, the press conference released that, you know, led to this suspect being brought to justice and being brought into custody. Authorities on Thursday had released a number of different images and video of the shooting scene and the suspect fleeing the shooting scene. Those photos probably helped certain people close to the suspect realized that maybe it was him. Since at the press conference, Cox referenced the suspect's serious dislike of Charlie Kirk.

Starting point is 00:03:02 Why don't we talk a little bit about who Charlie Kirk was and what Turning Point USA was, the group that he founded? Yeah, so Charlie Kirk was the founder of Turning Point USA. Turning Point USA was a or is a conservative nonprofit organization that essentially seeks to, in Bolden high school, young college age students to engage in, healthy, safe civil discourse on their college campuses, with their family members, with their friends. Charlie Kirk launched this recently, like after dropping out of college at the age of 18, back in 2012, he launched Turning Point USA. And, you know, we, a lot of people have known him as, as a huge ally of President Donald Trump and a huge advocate for the conservative party. A lot of people,

Starting point is 00:03:56 people since his assassination have been absolutely devastated, taking to X, taking to social media, talking about the legacy of Charlie Kirk. And currently, Turning Point USA has over 800 chapters on college campuses across America. And, you know, being able to talk to other members that were a part of Turning Point USA on their college campuses, you know, what their goal is. A lot of people have have told the Center Square that, you know, they were encouraged by Charlie Kirk and his legacy of being, you know, not only bold in the things he believed, but also in encouraging and engaging in civil discourse with those that he disagreed with. And so, yeah, Turning Point USA launched a statement, obviously saying that they are devastated. They were one of the people, aside from President Trump,

Starting point is 00:04:54 to first confirm his death after he was taken to Utah Hospital. But yeah, so Turning Point USA will kind of have a big question mark on who their leader will be moving forward. So you used the term civil discourse. Charlie Kirk was a controversial figure particularly among the left because of his political viewpoints, pro second amendment, for example. But that's what he did, though. He went to college campuses and he engaged in civil discourse with college students, including those who disagreed with him. He was not like one of those political attack dogs who like denounce other people for their political viewpoints.

Starting point is 00:05:40 He wanted civil discourse. Can you add to that at all? Yeah. It's devastating because the way that he was assassinated was doing exactly what he stood for and what he believed in. This was at Utah Valley University. This was the first stop in his American comeback tour, which is sponsored by various chapters of Turning Point USA on college campuses. And, you know, looking at the website, he had a whole list of other colleges he was going to go to after Utah Valley University. And he, you know, traveled to all of these colleges. He engaged

Starting point is 00:06:19 in, as you said, civil discourse and, you know, hard topics, not only with people he disagreed with, but also with people he did agree with. A lot of students just came and asked them questions. One student I was able to talk to, talked a lot about how, you know, she was afraid to get married at such a young age. And she went to a rally, talked with Charlie. And Charlie encouraged her to get married and have lots of children at a young age. And now she's married and has kids. And so, yeah, Charlie welcomed a lot of different people from different walks of life. And, you know, this was his first launch with this tour. And, you know, his plan was to finish it out throughout the whole school year, visiting different colleges, engaging in civil discourse.

Starting point is 00:07:05 The tent that he stood under under the final moments of his life says, you know, change my mind. Like, let's have a conversation. Come to the podium. come to the mic and let's talk about things that you agree on, that I don't agree on, and let's try and find either common ground or just say let's agree to disagree. Speaking of that event at Utah Valley University, there are about 3,000 people in attendance authorities estimate. There is plenty of course in the age of iPhones and phone cameras. There's plenty video of both the event itself.

Starting point is 00:07:42 Charlie Kirk's opening comments and then the fateful shooting incident. It's really brutal some of the video that's online to watch. It's graphic. And then there's just chaos, as you can imagine afterwards. What were your thoughts about that and covering that event? Yeah, it was definitely very devastating to watch. Not only that a life had been. taken, but also that it was taken from multiple different angles. And, you know, it was, it was also

Starting point is 00:08:19 sad to see a lot of news publications just immediately posting it without any warning or without any, you know, saying, hey, warning graphic image. And, you know, even leading up to a couple days ago, the Ukrainian refugee, the fatal stabbing on the Charlotte, North Carolina train, just how social media, know, is so easy to, to pull from that. And, and, and something that Spencer, that, that Governor Cox had said, this was their fourth press conference this morning. But I think the second or third one, he had said, you know, we as humans are, are not created to see those kinds of images on social media, you know, to see a life taken or a soul taken. And, you know, he quoted Charlie Kirk, which said, what she said, you know, in the midst of chaos when things are happening and we don't really know

Starting point is 00:09:13 what's going on, we have to put our phone down. We have to put social media down because there's going to be a lot of, you know, information out there. There's going to be a lot of images that people are just not meant to see. And I'm sure looking at, you know, all the eyewitnesses that were there, they were absolutely devastated. And what's even worse is his, you know, wife and children were there at the event. And currently, they are back in Arizona. Kirk's casket arrived Thursday evening in Phoenix, Arizona. And thankfully, the vice president of the United States, as well as the second lady, were there with Charlie Kirk's wife, Erica, just to console her in this time of grief. Esther, and just the final brief moments that we have, let's turn back to the suspect,

Starting point is 00:10:07 Robert Robinson, President Trump has said the suspect should face the death penalty for this crime. I don't think I've seen any official announcement as of the recording time on this. But what's next? What's next in this investigation briefly, please? Yeah, of course. The governor of, Governor Cox clarified in the press conference that, you know, now that they have a suspect in custody, the next steps will be waiting to hear what the Kirk family has to say. They have said very clearly that the death penalty is still legal in the state of Utah and not something that they are willing to commit, you know, swiftly injustice. But I think that they're going to have and work very closely with the Kirk family, with Erica, to kind of see next steps of what the family would like to do and what justice means for them, even though they are, they are grieving this tragic loss for not only the Kirk family, but also the conservative.

Starting point is 00:11:05 movement. Esther, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with this developing story at thecentersquare.com.

America's Talking - 'We got him:' Kirk shooting suspect in custody

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