Featured Image Credit: Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune/Getty Images/Office of the Governor of Utah via Getty Images
Topics: Charlie Kirk, US News, Crime
Jess Hardiman
Topics: Charlie Kirk, US News, Crime
Charlie Kirk's alleged killer, Tyler Robinson, wrote a chilling note ahead of the attack, the FBI has revealed.
The 31-year-old right-wing activist was fatally shot while debating students at Utah Valley University on Wednesday (10 September), at an event attended by around 3,000 people.
In the midst of a question on gun violence, Kirk sustained a bullet wound to his neck. Despite being rushed to a nearby hospital, political ally Donald Trump later announced that he'd died.
"The Great, and even Legendary, Charlie Kirk, is dead," the president wrote on Truth Social. "No one understood or had the Heart of the Youth in the United States of America better than Charlie."
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Following a 33-hour manhunt of the surrounding area - which also saw CCTV footage released of a person fleeing from a university building rooftop - authorities revealed on Friday (12 September) that they'd apprehended a potential suspect.
Robinson was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm, and obstruction of justice after he allegedly confessed his crimes to his father, who reportedly turned him in.
According to new information shared by FBI Director Kash Patel, Robinson said he was going to 'take out' Kirk in a note written prior to the conservative's murder.
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"The note was written before the shooting, it was in the suspect's home," Patel told Fox News.
"We have since learned the note - even though it was destroyed - we have found forensic evidence of the note and we have confirmed what the note said because our aggressive interview posture at the FBI."
He also shared what the note itself said: "I have the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it."
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During the latest press conference, Patel also revealed that Robinson's DNA had been found on the roof from where Kirk was shot, and on a towel in which the murder weapon - which had been discarded in nearby woods - had been wrapped.
The director added that the suspect had not been cooperating with investigators since his arrest.
The latest news comes just days after Utah Governor Spencer Cox told press that the suspect came from a 'good family', and had experienced a 'normal childhood'.
"All of those things that you would hope would never lead to something like this. And sadly, it did," he said.
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Cox also told NBC in a later interview that Robinson had come from a 'conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family's'.
Robinson is said to have spoken increasingly in recent months about how much he 'did not like Kirk', and told a family member about how 'Kirk was full of hate and spreading hate'.
Trump previously urged prosecutors for a speedy trial for Robinson, and expressed hopes that the suspect would get the death penalty.