Federal officials announced on Monday that the researchers found DNA and other evidence that links Tyler Robinson with the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk when FBI director Kash Patel faces increasing scrutiny about his leadership during the investigation.
Patel said Monday that Robinson had sent a text message before the shooting, saying that he had the opportunity to “get” Kirk and “he was going to do it for his hatred for what Charlie defended.” It is not clear to whom Robinson sent, or if that person alerted the police. A similar message had supposedly been contained in a note that was destroyed but recovered by the police, Patel told Fox News.
“We learned some shocking things when we talked to his family and friends,” Patel said in the interview.
The FBI said he collected a screwdriver containing Robinson's DNA on the roof of a building at the University of Utah Valley and a firearm wrapped in a towel that had been ruled out in a nearby wooded area. The towel also had Robinson's DNA, Patel said, he added that the firearm was still being prosecuted for forensic evidence.
Kirk, 31, was a loved figure in the conservative movement that in death gained praise for using the dialogue to present his case. He was known for his opinions without a filter and right on heated issues such as abortion, immigration and gender identity, he says that they frequently caused critical fierce, particularly in the university campus he visited. His death by a single shot during a speech commitment at the University of Utah Valley surprised the nation and has led to a vigorous debate about the motivations that supposedly drive Robinson, the 22 -year -old arrested under suspicion of murder.
The Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, pauses while talking at a press conference on Friday at OEM, Utah.
(Lindsey Wasson/AP)
During a round of interviews on Sunday morning, the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, said that Robinson subscribed to a “leftist ideology” and was radicalized after leaving Utah State University in 2021. Robinson's parents are registered republicans. His son is not affiliated with any political party and apparently has more liberal points of view, authorities said.
Robinson has not been cooperating with the investigators, but the people closest to him have been working with the police, Cox said. Until now, Robinson's friends have painted an image of a radicalized young person in the dark corners of the Internet, according to the governor.
“Clearly, there were many ongoing games, friends who have confirmed that there was a kind of deep and dark Internet, Reddit culture and these other dark places in the Internet where this person was deepening,” Cox said.
The deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, said that Robinson had an “obsession” with Kirk based on the information that the FBI has discovered so far, and is looking if others knew about the threat he raised.
“Did they hear him and thought it was a joke? That is what we are trying to discover now,” he told Fox News. “If there is a bigger network here, we will take it out to the public as soon as possible.”
There has been a lot of discussion about Robinson's couple, with whom he lives and that Cox said it is “the transition from man to woman.” Cox emphasized in a television interview during the weekend that the person had no knowledge of the attack and “he was surprised when they found out about it.”
Moments before they had fatally fired on the Utah campus on Wednesday, a audience member asked Kirk how many massive shootings were carried out by trans people in the United States.
“Too many,” Kirk replied.
The violence prevention project at the University of Hamline found that most of the shootings where four or more people were injured in a public place were carried out by men. Only 2% of the shootings in the last decade were carried out by women and less than 1% were by transgender people, according to the data.
Robinson gave himself to the police after his father saw images of him in a long -sleeved shirt and jeans flashing on television and computer screens in the middle of the FBI humiliating hunt for the shooter. The family called her bishop of the Church, also a neighbor, when Robinson threatened to take her life, according to a source of application of the law that was not authorized to discuss the investigation.
Cox has emphasized that the authorities are still trying to determine what led to the fatal shooting and what role, if any, political ideology performed in the incident. More information may come to light on Tuesday when Robinson is expected to be criminally accused.
“Why behind this … We are all drawing many conclusions about how someone like this could be radicalized. And I think those are important questions for us to ask and the important questions so that we can answer,” Cox told “Meet The Press” of NBC.
The director of the FBI, Kash Patel, comments on the research on the murder of Charlie Kirk while observing Utah Spencer Cox.
(Chris Samuels/The Salt Lake Tribune through Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Patel has faced criticism for his publications in X in the hours after the shooting saying that the “subject for horrible shooting” had been arrested. Less than two hours later, the researchers said they had ruled out that person as a suspect and released them after questioning him. Robinson would not be arrested for another day.
The announcement contrasts with how the FBI and other agencies of application of the law generally handle the arrest of a suspicious potential in high profile cases, especially one in which the identity of a suspect may not be clear immediately. In similar incidents in the past, the law enforcement agencies will often confirm if someone in custody is suspicious until several hours after their detention in an effort to solidify their participation.
The sources of the law and the political sources that speak on condition of anonymity said that Patel's message was not alienated with the cautious approach that officials generally adopt in such situations and led many to question the director's judgment.
Art Acevedo, former Chief of Police of Houston and Austin, said that Patel's lack of experience was evident in how he handled communications after the shooting.
“It is inconceivable that at a higher historical point for domestic and foreign threats, the FBI, the main agency to combat them, is directed by someone on their head. Our nation, the FBI and the president deserve better,” said Acevedo.
The former FBI special agent Terry Rankhorn said that Robinson's arrest was a great success for the application of Utah's law and the FBI, despite Patel's premature statement that a suspect was in custody.
“I think in retrospective [Patel] He would sit that it is not wise to say: 'We have it, “Rankhorn said.” You do not know that you have it until a jury has condemned a person or there is overwhelming evidence, which at this time I do not think there is a significant amount of evidence. “
Even before flying to Utah on Thursday, Patel held a meeting with higher agents and unleashed them. Patel and Bongino said in the call of blasphemies on Thursday morning that they were under intense pressure to arrest the murderer, according to the New York Times, which cited three people familiar with the exchange. Patel also called agents in Salt Lake City for not having shared photos of the suspect with him before.
Patel's actions seemed to cause confusion and frustration, even between conservative and right -wing experts.
“Suspect still loose,” Fox News Laura Ingraham published in X after the news that the initial Patel announcement of a suspect that was in custody was incorrect. “Unreal. Get it.”
Joseph Biggs, a member of the proud right -wing children who was convicted and sentenced for their role on January 6, 2021, assaulting the capital, criticized Patel on social networks.
“Stop this all click on the s, you are still doing,” he wrote. “It is improper of the office in which it represents.”
In an interview about “Fox & Friends” on Monday, Patel defended his research management, including the social networks that made the day of the shooting. He stressed that the 33 hours he required to stop Robinson was much faster than many other high profile previous arrests.
“Could I have written it a little better in the heat of the moment? Of course. But do I regret having presented it? Absolutely no,” he said. “I was telling the world what the FBI was doing as we were doing and continued doing it.”
Patel is expected to testify to the Senate Judicial Committees and the House of Representatives on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, on Patel FBI supervision.
