What We Know About the Man Arrested for Charlie Kirk’s Death

0:00So there's a lot of noise about AI, but time's too tight for more promises. So let's talk about results. At IBM, we work with our employees to integrate technology right into the systems they need. Now, a global workforce of 300 ,000 can use AI to fill their HR questions, resolving 94 % of common questions. Not noise. Proof of how we can help companies get smarter by putting AI where it actually pays off, deep in the work that moves the business. Let's create smarter business. IBM. This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week the news gets worse, the world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem.

0:39Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Brennan, and on the Disgraceland podcast, I explore the wild lives of rock stars and unbelievable true crime stories from music history. These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in a notorious prison or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of, or that time Blondie's Debbie Harry escaped Ted Bundy.

1:26Listen to Disgraceland on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

1:35Bloomberg Audio Studios. Podcasts. Radio. News. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We got him. The FBI identified 22-year-old Tyler Robinson as their suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Robinson has been arrested on suspicion of murder and weapons offenses. On the evening of September 11th, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend who contacted the Washington County Sheriff's Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed the incident. Kirk was fatally shot Wednesday during an event at Utah Valley University.

2:16Tyler Robinson is 22 years old, and as far as we understand, he had expressed that he was no fan of Charlie Kirk. Bloomberg senior national security reporter Miles Miller. He didn't like his ideology. He told this to family members during a dinner recently and knew that he was coming to Utah. And that is all part of the investigation. Much of what he did, he talked about in a Discord server with friends. And his roommate shared that information with law enforcement. where he hid the gun, how he fled. This investigation now will focus on how much of that is true, if he was self-radicalized, if he had any support to do this, where he got the gun.

3:01There's still so much we don't know. Over the last 48 hours, I have been as angry as I have ever been, as sad as I have ever been. During the FBI press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox warned those watching and listening against further violence. History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country. But every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us. We get to make decisions. We have our agency. And I desperately call on every American, Republican, Democrat, liberal, progressive, conservative, MAGA, all of us to please, please, please follow what Charlie taught me.

3:51I still believe that there is more good among us than evil. And I still believe that we can change the course of history. I'm hopeful because Americans can make it so.

4:09I'm Sarah Holder, and this is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. Today on the show, the latest on the assassination of Charlie Kirk.

4:23Miles Miller covers national security for Bloomberg. He's been closely following law enforcement's investigation into the killing of Charlie Kirk. And he reports that according to a person with knowledge of the investigation, Robinson's father recognized him as the suspect in the photos released by police and confronted him. And his father says, you look a lot like that guy in the photo. Were you responsible for this? He says, yes, I was. Then he says, you need to turn yourself in. I'm going to call our youth pastor at our church. The youth pastor just happens to be a task force officer, which is a local cop who is assigned to a federal task force, the one that actually is looking for him.

5:04He calls a deputy. A deputy calls the FBI. And they bring him in. He makes statements and they arrest him. Parallel to that happening, the FBI is doing their own investigation into trying to figure out who this person is. And so once they did get some information about him, then they were able to piece together and confirm things. So one thing is that the person who jumped from that roof had a Dodge Challenger. OK, this person that we now have in custody, we confirm, has a Dodge Challenger. Same person. One thing that's really interesting is that the FBI got about 11 ,000 leads. And just because this person is in custody does not mean those leads go away.

5:46They'll continue to track all of it down because you have to figure out if anybody gave material support, who gave him the gun, how he planned this, and was anybody else involved. And Tyler Robinson has been taken in as the suspect. But what evidence has been shared with the public so far that links this man with the car that was used as part of the getaway? The fact that he on discord says, I have this gun in the drop point. That's where police found the gun believed to be used in this incident. The fact that he had said that he inscribed bullets. All of those things are going to be crucial. But the most easy thing that links him to all of this is that he's wearing the same clothes, wearing the same exact clothes that police said he was wearing in surveillance video when he jumped from that roof.

6:32And people are going to be parsing through all those details in the coming days and over the weekend. But I want to talk about those inscriptions on the casings. What can you tell us about those? Yeah, one of the inscriptions talked about fascism. fascism. Another one was Bella Ciao, which was used in Italy, and it was linked to fascist, anti-fascist movements. Another one was a reference to the furry community. These are very online references, it seems like. Very much so. And so part of our reporting today is to figure out how online he was. In our initial searches, you know, we are not seeing a lot of his public profile being meme-driven and all that kind of stuff, but it'll take sort of that background knowledge.

7:17Usually 24 hours after any incident, we get some of his non-public social media platforms and then get to parse through that. Oftentimes, they'll highlight in incidents like this any posts that are germane to trying to piece together the ideology, the thinking behind all of this. More on the next steps of the investigation when we come back.

7:47Get the news you need in just 15 minutes. Start your day with Bloomberg Daybreak, the podcast with a global view on the stories that matter. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow. Join us each morning for curated stories on current events, politics, business, and foreign relations. Plus one conversation on the day's biggest developments, all in just 15 minutes. Subscribe to Bloomberg Daybreak for a precise, thoughtful take on the stories that matter. Listen to Bloomberg Daybreak each morning on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause?

8:21Maybe I have adult ADHD. I need to look this up. Where's my phone? Juliana, your phone is hot to the touch. I think it's asking you for a break. You know what? Maybe I should just ask ChatGPT. Or maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, like a couple sex therapist. Whoa, that escalated quickly, but okay. Because I have questions. We have questions. And I bet everyone has questions like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. How about this one? Is bribing your kids bad parenting or just negotiating? Oh, and I still do need to know, why was my poop green that one time? Hypothetically, right?

8:55Okay, well, instead of letting the internet guess, we've got actual people answering these exact questions. And laughing with us has got to be better than spending three hours down a rabbit hole online. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

9:21I hope you'll permit me a moment just to share a few more thoughts about where we are and how we got here. Social media is a cancer on our society right now. And I would encourage, again, I would encourage people to log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member. Go out and do good in your community. On Friday morning, Utah's Republican Governor Spencer Cox spoke at a press conference, updating the public on the status of the investigation and his thoughts on the last 36 hours. I absolutely believe that this is a watershed in American history, yes. The question is what kind of watershed, and that chapter remains to be written.

10:02Is this the end of a dark chapter in our history or the beginning? I watched the press conference this morning. After the updates on the investigation, Governor Spencer Cox went back to the podium to share some remarks about what he thinks the shooting means, how he's making sense of it. What was his message? Yeah, the governor's message was that, like, everybody needs to calm down the rhetoric, one. And, you know, I think making a very online message would just get offline and touch grass. He literally said, touch grass. I was surprised by that because I feel like those are not exactly the words of the right.

10:37So it was very interesting to hear that. But to call for toning down of the rhetoric, because it's so different from what the president spoke about when he was on Fox today. But the one thing that was really interesting that the governor said in Thursday's press conference was that our adversaries, China and Russia, are using this incident to try to incite the right against the left. And - Is there evidence of that? You know, I've not seen it, but I'm wondering if in the intelligence reports that come out, there is actual evidence of that. What can we say about the role of the FBI in this investigation so far?

11:13Because there's been a lot of different information coming out over the past few days. The FBI announced they had apprehended someone, then released them. How typical is this process for an FBI investigation? I cover Kash Patel pretty closely. I talk with his office pretty much daily. I think you can knock him for those two tweets announcing that someone was in custody. He's trying to be a more modern FBI director. And so, you know, getting out and being more transparent about when they have information was the goal. But that was not the outcome. You know, I spoke with the White House today about it.

11:50They, you know, have all the support for him. And what do you make of those 11 ,000 leads that they're still parsing through? What might we learn in the days ahead? Somebody may have seen him at a gas station, which is good because then it helps investigators figure out, OK, was a credit card used? Whose credit card was it? You have to track every lead down. Some of them and probably the bulk of them are incorrect. You know, I saw a lot on social media. Social media was very involved, as you know, with this case, identifying people who had nothing to do with this or as people that may be involved because of how they look and all of that kind of stuff.

12:25And so the bulk of it is that kind of stuff, the open source things. But, you know, when they do an appeal for information, you always find something that you just weren't looking for. And that's the reason why they don't let these leads go just because they have a suspect. Miles says the shooting Wednesday is part of a marked increase in political violence in the U.S. And it's got authorities on high alert. You know, in talking with the Secret Service and talking with the FBI, it's something that they're tracking closely. And, you know, it's something that law enforcement around the country is going to have to spend a lot more time and money worried about.

13:02When AOC comes to New York, when Kamala Harris now with no Secret Service comes to New York, she'll have to get lucky protection by NYPD intelligence because they just don't want any problems on their watch. Will that happen around the country? That's the thing that you will have to look out for. So are there conversations going on about increased security measures for political figures and politicians? 100 percent. Just look last night to Donald Trump at the Yankee game with a big bulletproof barrier at Yankee Stadium. That barrier didn't exist before, but it sure does now. Let's look back to Butler.

13:42After Butler, then anytime Trump was in public, the big barricade. And the only reason they didn't have that is because it's so heavy to carry around. And, you know, they're carrying these on military planes. That is the new normal, at least for now, until some of this sort of settles.

14:02This is The Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. The show is hosted by me, David Gura, and Juan Ha. The show is made by Aaron Edwards, David Fox, Eleanor Harrison Dengate, Patty Hirsch, Rachel Lewis-Kriske, Naomi Ng, Julia Press, Tracy Samuelson, Naomi Shaven, Alex Udiura, Julia Weaver, Yang Yang, and Taka Yasuzawa. To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access to all of Bloomberg.com, subscribe today at Bloomberg.com slash podcast offer. Thanks for listening. We'll be back on Monday.

14:42This is Chelsea Handler from Dear Chelsea. Every week, the news gets worse, the world gets crazier, and Yamanika is here to tell whoever's responsible, you're the problem. Do you know I just found out who Sidney Sweeney was? If he got a bunch of women, then I should have a bunch of men. Do better or do less so I don't have to do so much. I'm Yamanika, and I'm out. Listen to You're the Problem with Yamanika on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jake Brennan, and on the Disgraceland Podcast, I explore the wild lives of rock stars and unbelievable true crime stories from music history.

15:22These are the stories you haven't heard, the kind you'll end up telling someone else. Like the time Paul McCartney spent in a notorious prison, or the bizarre crime Lady Gaga is accused of, or that time Blondie's Debbie Harry escaped Ted Bundy. Listen to Disgraceland on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Bill, why is my eye twitching? Does this mean I'm in perimenopause? Where's my phone? Juliana, maybe we can ask an actual human. Yes, because I have questions. And I bet you do too. Like, is it normal to sleep in separate bedrooms? We do that. And I still need to know why my poop's been green.

16:02We've got actual people answering these exact questions. Listen to Bill and Juliana. The podcast. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.