Neighbours of Charlie Kirk’s assassination suspect Tyler Robinson speak out about his family
Neighbours have spoken out in shock following Tyler Robinson's arrest as a suspect for the killing of Charlie Kirk.
On Wednesday (10 September), Kirk was fatally shot when a bullet pierced his neck while he was speaking at Utah Valley University (UVU) at an event that over 3,000 people attended.
Shortly after the gunfire, the 31-year-old was huddled into a car by his security team and taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Following Kirk's death, authorities instigated a search for the suspect, and two days later, on Friday (12 September), they revealed they had arrested a suspect, who they identified as 22-year-old Robinson.
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According to authorities, Robinson was arrested following a family member identifying him from the CCTV footage released by the FBI, with reports later suggesting that it had been his father who'd apparently turned him in.
And following his arrest, the neighbours of the Robinson family have since commented on the horrific situation.
One neighbour, 20-year-old Addi Jacobson, said (via the BBC): "It shakes up a community because you don't expect it."
She added that while she didn't personally know the family, her grandmother, whose house she'd recently moved into, did.
"She just was saying that she thinks that, from what she's seen and what she knows, they're a great family, just regular citizen, she used the words, 'very patriotic people'." Jacobson continued. "This whole time, I never knew that I was living next to somebody capable of something like this.
"It just makes you kind of question 'how much closer am I to somebody else that could be this way?'"
Another neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, described Robinson as 'a pretty quiet kid'.
She further described the 22-year-old's parents, calling his mother 'an amazing parent', while his father was a 'hard worker', adding: "That just even goes to show, you can be an amazing parent, and your kid still just chooses what they choose."
Meanwhile, Sherri Steele described the huge police presence outside an apartment believed to belong to Robinson, and showed the BBC a video, which she said belonged to authorities, where a large voice can be heard yelling: "Freeze! Come out now!"
"It just kind of blows your mind, coming up the street and all the sudden there are helicopters above your house," she said.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox described the Robinsons as a 'good family' and said that Tyler had a 'normal childhood'.
"All of those things that you would hope would never lead to something like this. And sadly, it did," he said.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, he later said that Robinson came from a 'conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family's'.
In a recent update, authorities claim that Robinson is still in custody and is 'not co-operating' with authorities.
He has yet to be formally charged; however, Cox said that the state would be working on charging documents scheduled to be filed in the next three days.
Topics: Politics, Charlie Kirk, News, US News
Jen Thomas