President Trump announced early Friday that a suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination was turned in by his father — with the suspect identified as Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah student who allegedly wrote “Hey fascist! Catch!” on a bullet.
“I think, with a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” during a live interview at the cable giant’s Manhattan studio, saying he’d heard just minutes before his 8 a.m. interview.
“Somebody who was very close to him turned him in,” the president said, then revealing it was the suspect’s dad, Matt, who relayed it through “a minister who was involved with law enforcement.”
“I hope he’s going to be found guilty, and I hope he gets the death penalty. What he did — Charlie Kirk was the finest person and he didn’t deserve this.”
Trump did not name the suspect, but he was later confirmed to be Robinson, an ID first confirmed by The Post.
“We got him,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announced, with the arrest at 10 p.m. Thursday some 33 hours after father of two Kirk, 31, was gunned down at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Tyler was turned in by his dad, a now-retired veteran law enforcement officer, who confronted him after seeing photos of the killer — with the son saying he would rather kill himself then hand himself in, sources told The Post.
Discord chats with his roommate also showed him discussing a rifle hidden in a towel near where it was found soon after Kirk’s assassination.
Bullets had hateful scrawls on them, including, “If you read this, you are gay LMAO” — and “Hey fascist! Catch!” aimed at the conservative debater.
Another featured the words “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,” referencing a popular Italian anti-fascist song, Cox said.
Robinson had been admitted to Utah State University — about 200 miles from UVU, where Kirk was murdered — on a $32,000 Presidential Scholarship as a pre-engineering major, with his family filming him reading his acceptance letter.
However, he was only “a student at USU for one semester in 2021 [fall] and then took a leave of absence,” a rep said, without elaborating on why he dropped out.
He was a current student at Dixie Technical College in St. George, Utah, where he was a third-year student in the electrical-apprenticeship program.
Robinson has two younger brothers and his parents, Matt and Amber, have been married for about 25 years, according to social media posts.
The family lives in a suburb of the city of St. George in southern Utah, about a 3 1/2 hour drive south of the Utah Valley University campus where Robinson is accused of assassinating Kirk, 31, with a single shot from an elevated position about 200 yards from the tent where he was speaking.
The social media posts reflect a happy family life with trips to Disneyland, Alaska and St. Kitts — and the suspect’s mom bragging about her son being a genius and “smartypants” getting accepted into college.
Other photos show him toying with military weapons, including a rocket launcher.
There is no indication of a prior criminal record in a search of state and national public records.
Initial reports described the suspect as a gunman wearing jeans, a black shirt, and a black vest perched with a long rifle atop a building east of the school’s library. He was wearing similar clothes when arrested, officials said — and owned a Dodge Challenger identical to the one the killer was seen arriving in.
Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, had just answered a question from an audience member about mass shootings committed by transgender people at the outdoor event on the campus in Orem when he was hit by a single round.
Follow The Post’s live coverage of the Charlie Kirk shooting for the latest news and updates
The conservative influencer jerked back and appeared to recoil in pain and grab at his neck as the crack of a single gunshot rang out from the crowd, sending thousands of spectators into a panic, dramatic video from the scene showed.
“I didn’t watch,” Trump told Fox News on Friday of the shockingly graphic videos. “I heard about it … I would have never made a good doctor, let me put it that way,” the president said.
“I mean, I heard enough. I didn’t want to watch it … I didn’t want to remember Charlie that way.”
Officers from at least four law enforcement agencies were involved in the manhunt, including the FBI, the Orem police, the Utah Department of Public Safety and the Utah Valley University police.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced hours after the cold-blooded murder that a person of interest was in custody, then later said he had been released after questioning.
That person was not the one being eyed now.
Stay up to date on the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk
- Charlie Kirk shot dead at UVU event
- Charlie Kirk shot live updates: Tyler Robinson acted alone, officials say
- Charlie Kirk assassination suspect turned in by cop father, ID’d as 22 year-old Utah man
- Tyler Robinson acted alone in Charlie Kirk shooting, officials say
- Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin to be charged with aggravated murder
- Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin Tyler Robinson was seething over campus appearance, wrote ‘Hey fascist! Catch!’ on bullet
- Tyler Robinson threatened to kill himself rather than surrender after dad confronted him
The FBI had also released a tipline on Wednesday evening, urging attendees to come forward with more information and footage of the event, and on Thursday offered a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the suspect’s identification and capture.
“The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead. No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie,” Trump wrote in a mournful post on Truth Social after news of Kirk’s death spread.
He later said he was “filled with grief and anger at the heinous assassination of Charlie Kirk” in a video posted on the platform.
“Charlie inspired millions. And tonight, all who knew him and loved him are united in shock and horror,” the president said, adding that Kirk is now a “martyr for truth and freedom.”
“This is a dark moment for America,” Trump added.
After he was shot, Kirk was rushed to a nearby hospital for emergency surgery, a nurse told longtime friend and former employee Laci Williams, who relayed that information to The Post and later confirmed reports he had died.
The popular activist was best known for his open mic “Prove Me Wrong” debates on college campuses where community members could challenge his views.
He was in the middle of one of those debates as part of his “American Comeback Tour” when he was gunned down.
Kirk leaves behind his wife, former Miss Arizona Erika Frantzve, and two young children.
“This is a dark day for our state, it’s a tragic day for our nation,” said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. “I want to be very clear that this is a political assassination.3.7K
“I just want to remind people that we still have the death penalty in the state of Utah.”
