Assassination of Charlie Kirk
How did the assassination of Charlie Kirk unfold?
How did law enforcement initially handle the investigation of the shooting of Charlie Kirk?
Who is the suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk?
What have been the broader political consequences of Charlie Kirk’s assassination?
Conservative activist and Donald Trump ally Charlie Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings in the United States on September 10, 2025, at Utah Valley University (UVU) in Orem, Utah, when a single shot fired from a distance of some 175 yards (160 meters) hit Kirk in the neck, killing him. Video of the shooting spread quickly on social media, exposing millions of people to the gruesome killing.
Even as a manhunt was underway for the killer, reaction to the latest incident of political violence in the United States included horror and calls for unity, condemnations of social media, the spread of conspiracy theories, some celebration from those on the far left, and false declarations from the far right that such violence is perpetrated only by liberal actors.
The shooting and the manhunt
Shortly after noon on September 10, Kirk was fielding questions from a group of some 3,000 spectators in an open-air amphitheater at the UVU campus. The event was organized by Turning Point USA, a conservative grassroots group founded by Kirk to mobilize conservative young people.
The single shot, later determined to have been fired from a nearby building on campus, caused panic among those in the crowd and prompted a lockdown of the university. In the immediate wake of the shooting there were questions about security for the event. Kirk had his own security team and campus police had assigned officers to the event, but there was no security screening at the campus.
As state, local, and federal law enforcement sought to apprehend the killer, there were missteps in the investigation. Just minutes after the shooting, UVU issued a statement saying a suspect was in custody. Hours later, after the news of Kirk’s death had been announced, Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer Cox, said that a person of interest was in custody. The first statement was simply wrong; the person of interest Cox referenced would later be released.
Over the course of the next 30 or so hours, Cox would be the public face of the investigation and a voice that questioned how the country had become so divided:
“We just need every single person in this country to think about where we are and where we want to be. To ask ourselves, ‘Is this it? Is this what 250 years has wrought on us?’ I pray that that’s not the case.”
After the initial Cox press conference, FBI Director Kash Patel posted on X (formerly Twitter), “subject for the horrific shooting today that took the life of Charlie Kirk is now in custody.” That had to be walked back hours later after the subject was released. But by the morning of September 11, there was real progress, as the weapon in the assassination was discovered in woods not far from campus. Law enforcement officials also said they had video of someone who could be the shooter and reported that a shoe impression and other physical evidence had been recovered.
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Throughout the day grainy images of the suspected shooter wearing a ball cap and a black T-shirt with an eagle on it were released. In the city of Washington, Utah, Amber Jones Robinson thought she recognized the young man in the images. She shared her concern with her husband, Matt, that the images showed their son. Their fear grew as they learned that the weapon police said was used in the shooting matched one Matt Robinson had given his son. They reached out to their son, who initially avoided their questions but later implied to his father that he was considering death by suicide. The parents, with the help of a family friend who was a former law enforcement officer, persuaded their son to drive the 260 miles (420 km) from Orem to Washington.
The night of September 11, Tyler Robinson, 22, turned himself in to Washington County police. Trump would announce the arrest the next morning on Fox & Friends.
The suspect
Tyler Robinson is the eldest of Amber and Matt Robinson’s three sons. He grew up in a quiet neighborhood in Utah, where his family belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he was a good student. The family went on fishing and shooting excursions and vacationed in the Grand Canyon.
Robinson graduated from high school in 2021 with a 4.0 grade point average and a 34 (of 36) on the ACT college entrance exam. He received a substantial scholarship to Utah State University but left after one semester. He became an apprentice electrician.
Robinson is registered to vote but without a party affiliation; his parents are registered Republicans. He had, according to his parents, become more political in recent years and had spoken at a recent family dinner about Kirk’s upcoming appearance at UVU. Those who know Robinson describe him as being deeply involved in Internet culture. In addition to finding the gun, police also found shell casings engraved with messages related to anti-fascism, video games, and Internet memes.
In the hours after the shooting, Robinson shared what may have been a motive with his roommate, who was also his romantic partner. The roommate is a transgender person who is transitioning from male to female. In a text exchange the roommate asked: “you weren’t the one who did it right????” and Robinson replied, “I am, I’m sorry.” He went on to add, speaking of Kirk: “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.” The roommate has cooperated fully with law enforcement.
Robinson was held without bail and charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering, and committing a violent crime when children are present. Prosecutors have said they will seek the death penalty in the case.
The fallout
Reaction to the murder of Kirk, one of the right’s most provocative and polarizing advocates, held a mirror up to the divisions in the United States in 2025. Cox, the Utah governor, called social media a “cancer” and encouraged people to “log off, turn off, touch grass, go hug a family member, go out and do good in the community.”
Trump, who was the target of two assassination attempts in 2024, made false claims that political violence is the exclusive domain of Democrats: “When you look at the problems, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right.” He also said he was “not familiar” with the case of Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman and her husband, who were assassinated in June. The suspect in that case had a hit list that included the names of dozens of Democratic politicians.
(Read more about political violence in the United States in the 21st century.)
There were people who celebrated Kirk’s death, including some airline pilots, teachers, and political commentators. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth called for discipline of military members who condoned Kirk’s death, and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy called for the firing of pilots. In a statement that drew consternation from the political left and the right, Attorney General Pam Bondi said on a conservative podcast: “There’s free speech and then there’s hate speech.” Bondi later said that “hate speech” would not be prosecuted.
MSNBC fired political consultant Matthew Dowd for comments he made on air that seemed to imply Kirk’s actions led to his death. “Hateful thoughts lead to hateful words, which then lead to hateful actions,” Dowd said. And The Washington Post fired opinion columnist Karen Attiah for violating its social media policy with posts that included: “Part of what keeps America so violent is the insistence that people perform care, empty goodness and absolution for white men who espouse hatred and violence.” (Attiah sued The Post and was ordered to be given her job back.)
ABC announced on September 17 that comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was being taken off the air “indefinitely” for statements that Kimmel made about conservative commentary on Tyler Robinson, Kirk’s accused killer, including: “We hit some new lows over the weekend with the MAGA gang desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them, and doing everything they can to score political points from it.”
Even as law enforcement reiterated that the shooter acted alone, conspiracy theories—born of misinformation and disinformation—spread, including allegations that the assassination had ties to Israel because Kirk, at times, questioned the actions of the Israeli government regarding the Israel-Hamas War, or that the Ukrainian government had Kirk killed because he opposed aid to its war effort. These false claims were amplified by foreign social media bots. In December 2025, while promoting her husband’s posthumous book, Stop, in the Name of God: Why Honoring the Sabbath Will Transform Your Life, Erika Kirk addressed one of the key propagators of these conspiracy theories. Former Turning Point employee and right-wing podcaster Candace Owens has used her huge social media presence to amplify claims. Speaking in a CBS News town hall with Bari Weiss, Kirk’s widow was asked what she would say to Owens: “Stop. That’s it. That’s all I have to say. Stop.”
Erika Kirk has called on having cameras in the courtroom for the trial of her husband’s accused assassin. Speaking about Kirk’s family and supporters, she told Fox News: “We deserve to have cameras in there.” She has also objected to a defense proposal of a 2029 trial.
In a court hearing in Utah in July 2026, which was attended by Erika Kirk and other members of the Kirk family, Robinson’s roommate and former romantic partner described a conversation the two had the day after the shooting. Lance Twiggs told police investigators that Robinson said that “he wished he hadn’t done it.” The hearing allows both the prosecution and defense to present arguments to the judge who in September determined that there was enough evidence for Robinson to stand trial. The judge also ruled that if convicted of aggravated murder, Robinson could face the death penalty.