Charlie Kirk’s assassination continues to reverberate across the United States as investigators work to be taught extra about the conservative activist’s killing and the 22-year-old Utah man alleged to have carried it out.
The suspect, Tyler Robinson, is slated to look in state courtroom on Tuesday. He is being held with out bail on the Utah County Jail on expenses together with aggravated homicide, felony discharge of a firearm and obstruction of justice, in accordance with officers.
The Utah County Sheriff’s Office advised NCS on Sunday that Robinson is being held in a particular housing unit and can stay on particular watch pending a psychological well being analysis, a course of that will take a number of days.
Here’s what to know:
Over the weekend, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox shared extra info that investigators had uncovered about Robinson, a third-year scholar in {an electrical} apprenticeship program who grew up within the small suburban group of Washington, Utah.
Robinson isn’t cooperating with authorities, Cox stated. Still, investigators have pointed to gaming and “dark internet” tradition as potential components that allegedly radicalized him primarily based on info from household, associates, and acquaintances.
“Clearly, there was a lot of gaming going on, friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, Reddit culture and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep. You saw that on the casings … the meme-ification that is happening in our society today,” the Republican governor advised NBC News, referencing the messages engraved on bullet casings in a rifle discovered close to the lethal capturing.
Those messages included a mixture of memes and allusions to video video games. They featured a collection of arrows representing the controls used to hold out an assault within the online game Helldivers 2 and lyrics of a preferred Italian tune linked to anti-fascists.
Cox advised NCS’s Dana Bash on Sunday that authorities are additionally investigating whether or not Robinson’s romantic relationship with his roommate, who was transitioning from male to feminine, may very well be related to the motivation for the capturing.
“This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening and is working with investigators right now,” Cox stated on “State of the Union.”
Jud Hoffman, vp of the social and gaming platform Discord, stated in a press release Friday that there have been “communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere.”
Cox appeared to verify the existence of a notice within the interview with NCS however indicated it was nonetheless underneath overview.
“Those are things that are still being processed for accuracy and verification and will be included in charging documents,” Cox stated.
He declined to share particular particulars when pressed by Bash on whether or not a notice was discovered.
Meanwhile, Utah Attorney General Derek Brown has but to announce whether or not authorities would pursue the dying penalty. He stated Friday that “everything is on the table.”
The fallout of Kirk’s killing is coursing by way of Washington, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers worried that violent attacks on political figures may grow to be extra frequent.
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, who was shot at an occasion in 2011, known as political violence “a pervasive issue in our country” and cautioned in opposition to inserting blame with one facet.
“Whether you’re a governor or senator, a member of the House, president of the United States, you have to be very careful about your words because people are listening,” Kelly, who represented Kirk in Congress, advised NBC on Sunday.
Utah Sen. John Curtis, a Republican, echoed that point over the weekend in an interview with ABC, saying, “Radical coming from any direction is not good, it’s not healthy and it should be called out.”
Speaker Mike Johnson stated he’s been working to reassure House members about their private safety within the days following Kirk’s killing.
“I’ve been talking with a lot of them over the last few days about that and trying to calm the nerves to assure them that we will make certain that everyone has a level of security that’s necessary,” the Louisiana Republican stated Sunday on CBS.
In July, following fatal shootings focusing on state lawmakers in Minnesota, the US House increased security funding and assets for members. Johnson advised NCS final week that roughly 60 Democrats and 20 Republicans took benefit of that program, and he needs to look at what labored and what didn’t.
Johnson joined different Republican lawmakers and Trump administration officers for a vigil honoring Kirk on the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, on Sunday night. He urged an viewers of mourners to undertake the Turning Point USA founder’s rules and method, insisting that “Charlie loved the vigorous debate, but he loved people more.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt additionally praised Kirk’s legacy as one which championed conservative and Christian values, and highlighted the impression he had on the 2024 election. “President Trump loved you, Charlie, so much too,” she added.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump has continued to accuse his political opponents of fomenting violence, pinning blame on the left for creating an setting of discord whereas claiming there isn’t violence drawback on the correct.
“The problem is on the left. It’s not on the right,” he advised reporters on Sunday in New Jersey as he was returning to Washington.
NCS’s Jenna Monnin, Betul Tuncer, Kevin Liptak and Betsy Klein contributed to this report.