Charlie Kirk speaks at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, before he was fatally shot. Photo / Getty Images)
The 22-year-old suspect in Charlie Kirk’s killing appears to have confessed to friends in an online chat shortly before turning himself in to law enforcement, according to two people familiar with the chat and screenshots obtained by the Washington Post.
“Hey guys, I have bad news for you all,” said a message from an account belonging to the suspect, Tyler Robinson, on the online platform Discord. “It was me at UVU yesterday. im sorry for all of this.”
The message was sent on Thursday night local time, about two hours before officials said Robinson was taken into custody.
A member of the group chat shared an image of the conversation with the Post and confirmed that it came from Robinson’s account. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their privacy and out of fear of harassment.
Discord provided a copy of the message with the confession to authorities, according to a person familiar with the company’s interaction with law enforcement.
The message was sent from Robinson’s account to a small private group of online friends, the person said.
Discord is working closely with the FBI and local authorities, providing information about Robinson’s online activities on the platform, the person added.
Discord has said that an internal investigation found “no evidence that the suspect planned this incident or promoted violence on Discord”.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office referred the Post to the Utah Department of Public Safety, which did not respond to a request for comment. Spokespeople for the Utah DPS as well as for the FBI and the Department of Justice declined to comment.
Robinson was arrested last week after a 33-hour manhunt, accused of fatally shooting one of America’s most prominent conservative activists at a Utah Valley University event.
United States authorities have said one of Robinson’s family members contacted a friend who then told law enforcement that Robinson had confessed or implied that he committed the crime.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox (Republican) said yesterday that Robinson’s motive is still under investigation but that the suspect appears to have held a “leftist ideology”. Officials say their interviews indicate that Robinson became “more political” in recent years and had criticised Kirk.
The Discord conversation shared with the Post shows members of the group chat reacting to Kirk’s shooting - before the news broke that Robinson was allegedly involved. The group included about 30 people, according to the person who provided screenshots.
“Charlie Kirk got shot,” one friend wrote, according to an image of the messages.
“I just saw the video holy s***,” another user wrote about an hour and a half later, adding of Kirk: “Bro didn’t deserve to go out like that sad”.
The only response from Robinson’s account came the next day with the message announcing “bad news”.
“im surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments,” the message, posted at 7.57pm local time in Utah, continued.
“thanks for all the good times and laughs, you’ve all been so amazing, thank you all for everything.”
Robinson was taken into custody at 10pm that night, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
No one responded to Robinson that night, according to the screenshots obtained by the Post. But the next day, one friend wrote that the apparent confession seemed to be true.
The friend asked group members to “pray for Tyler and his repentance” and then turned to Kirk.
“While Charlie Kirk’s politics were not acceptable to some I ask that we all say a prayer for him and his family during these confusing times,” the friend added.
The New York Times reported on a conversation in a different Discord chat group earlier the same day.
In that conversation, Robinson joked that a “doppelgänger” was trying to get him in trouble after law enforcement released images of a shooting suspect who resembled Robinson.
Cox confirmed the existence of that conversation yesterday and said Robinson’s friends “did not believe it was actually him” at that point.
The person who provided other Discord messages to the Post said they are from a different group.
Chris Dehghanpoor, Evan Hill, Jeremy Roebuck, Praveena Somasundaram and Perry Stein contributed to this report.
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