The suspect behind the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk has been taken into custody, US President Donald Trump said on Friday in an interview with Fox News.
The arrested suspect in the Charlie Kirk killing has been identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson from Utah after a family member informed authorities, Governor Spencer Cox said.
"I think with a high degree of certainty we have him in custody," Trump said.
The president hopes that Kirk's killer would be issued the death penalty by the US legal system. Kirk was known for ideologically supporting Trump.
Trump said a minister and the suspect's father were involved in helping to apprehend the individual, "Somebody close to him turned him, you know."
Kirk was shot during an event at a college campus in Utah and an extensive manhunt for the shooter was launched. The Federal Bureau of Investigation recovered what they believed was the rifle used to kill Kirk and released photos of the person.
Robert Bohls, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Salt Lake City office, revealed that a high-powered bolt-action rifle was found in a wooded area near Utah Valley University, where the gunman is said to have fled after the attack. The weapon is being examined along with other evidence that includes footwear impressions and palm prints collected at the scene.
The state of Utah will be pursuing the death penalty when the suspect is caught, Cox has said.
In 2023, Charlie Kirk, took a question at an event in Salt Lake City about the second amendment to the US constitution and gun-related deaths. He answered: "I think it's worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year, so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights."
Two years later, once again in Utah, Kirk was killed with a gun. His death comes against a backdrop of increased political violence in the US, driven by a new set of political, societal and technological factors.
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