Those who knew 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, arrested for the murder of influential pro-Trump and conservative influencer, podcaster and blogger Charlie Kirk, are still trying to answer the question of what prompted him to commit this crime and are telling local media what their impressions of the young man are, Agence France-Presse summarizes, BTA reported.
Robins was a brilliant student in high school. He was raised in the spirit of the Mormon religion, and his parents are Republicans. He is from the small town of Washington, Utah.
He was arrested Thursday night US time after a 33-hour manhunt. Yesterday, US President Donald Trump was the first to announce that a possible suspect in the murder of Charlie Kirk had been arrested.
The small town of Washington is surrounded by reddish canyons and mountains. There, Robinson's parents' house is ordinary and typical of the middle-class American neighborhood next to the local church.
Former security guard at the local school, Chris Schwierman, says that Tyler's arrest shocked everyone. He was the oldest child in the family and had two brothers. He was calm, respectful of others, and rather reserved, says Schuerman.
In school, Tyler was the ideal student, the kind of person everyone would want in their class, says Jayda Funk, who was Tyler's classmate for 11 years, from ages 5 to 16. "I always thought he would become a businessman or the president of a company," she adds, emphasizing that what she has learned about Tyler now is truly unexpected. Jayda says Robinson was reserved in school but not weird, had friends and hung out with different groups of boys.
After graduating high school with honors in 2021, Tyler briefly attended college before enrolling in an electrical apprenticeship program at a technical school near his home.
Tyler's parents were a kitchen appliance salesman and a health care worker who worked with the disabled. They are Mormons, like many Utahns, Schuylerman said. But they were not practicing believers. They had not appeared at the church for eight years, Schuyerman added.
According to American media, Tyler Robinson was trained to shoot, but his training in this direction was the most banal.
In the electoral registers, Tyler's parents are listed as Republicans, but he himself did not indicate any political affiliation. According to Utah state registers, he did not vote in the election last year.
According to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, however, Tyler Robinson has become politicized in the past few years. He shared his hostility towards Charlie Kirk with a family member.
According to the police, Tyler's father convinced his son to surrender to the police.
At the crime scene, investigators also found shell casings with anti-fascist inscriptions. One of them read “Hey Fascist! Hold That!, and another one referenced the Italian anti-fascist song "Bella Ciao". This is where much of the American right-wing has speculated that Tyler Robinson is a far-leftist.
Classmates describe Tyler Robinson as a video game fan. In January, he also became close to a group of high-performance car enthusiasts. Among the members of this group, he often met 40-year-old Jay, but he did not talk to him about politics. "He was rather shy, he was passionate about cars," says Jay. "We talked about the powerful cars, the roar they make and the way they drive," Jay said, adding that he was shocked by Tyler Robinson's arrest.
Tyler Robinson lived in an apartment complex in St. George, about a 10-minute drive from his parents' home. He owned a gray Dodge Challenger. His neighbors barely knew him. Heather McKnight, his neighbor for more than a year, described him as a loner, with a sullen demeanor who always drove too fast. "He was always aloof, he never said hello, he was just weird," said Heather, a 50-year-old nurse. She added that she never imagined this man would commit such a heinous crime.