“We got it”: the alleged murderer of Charlie Kirk arrested

(Orem) A man suspected of having murdered conservative influencer Charlie Kirk was arrested after a frantic man hunt, the authorities announced on Friday, two days after the murder of the Drapeau de la Jeunesse Trumpiste who shocked from the US deeply polarized.

The arrest was announced Friday morning by Donald Trump and confirmed by the authorities at a press conference in Orem, the city of Utah where Charlie Kirk, 31, was shot in the neck on Wednesday during a public debate on a university campus.

“We got it,” said Utah Republican Governor Spencer Cox, identifying the suspect as Tyler Robinson.

Federal Police Director (FBI) Kash Patel explained that the 22 -year -old assassin, was apprehended Thursday evening around 10 p.m. on Friday, east on Friday) after 33 hours of hunt.

“War cry”

In a declaration broadcast live on social networks Friday evening and enamelled with multiple religious references, Erika Kirk paid tribute to her dead husband in “martyr”, visibly upset, standing next to the chair from which he animated his very listened to.

Donald Trump had explained on the Fox News channel that “someone very close” to the alleged killer “denounced him”, adding that the father of the suspect himself as well as a pastor had played a role.

According to the Governor of Utah, a member of the family of Tyler Robinson contacted an acquaintance who approached a member of the police, to say that Robinson “confided in them or had suggested that he was the author of the shooting”.

Another family member has testified that “Robinson had become more politicized in recent years,” added Governor Cox. He reported a recent conversation with a parent in which Tyler Robinson had mentioned the next arrival of Charlie Kirk in Utah for a public debate on a university campus and expressed his hostility to his person and his opinions.

Multiple messages

The authorities, who have mentioned a “targeted” act since the day of the drama, have not provided mobile to the assassination.

But they said that messages, sometimes confused, had been written on found ammunition, such as “fascist eh!” Catch that! “Or” Oh Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao “, named after the famous Italian anti -fascist song. Another says: “If you read that, you are gay lmao (laughing in English, editor’s note)”.

The full table of suspect’s political opinions is still taking shape. The Utah State registers show that it is registered on the electoral lists, but that it is affiliated with any political party and that it is listed as inactive, which means that it did not vote in the last two general elections.

On Thursday, the FBI had published several photos and videos of the suspect: a young man, dressed in a dark t-shirt decorated with an American flag.

On a video posted by the FBI, we see a person identified as the suspect running on a roof after shooting and jumping with address to the ground. We then see him crossing a very frequented street and disappear in a wooded area, where the investigators then found a 30-06 Mauser hunting rifle.

More than 7000 reports were received by police on Thursday evening.

Climate of political violence

Charlie Kirk’s body was transported on Thursday on the plane of Vice-President JD Vance to Phoenix, Arizona, the headquarters of his Turning Point USA association which he had co-founded in 2012, at the age of 18, and in a decade the most important group of young conservatives in the United States.

JD Vance, who praised in Charlie Kirk a “real friend”, canceled his arrival at the commemorations of September 11 in New York to meet the family of the deceased.

Illustration of the proximity that Charlie Kirk maintained with the American executive, JD VANCE A, according to a video shared by the White House, helped to wear the coffin for a few meters to bring it aboard his government plane.

Drapel of the Trumpist youth now seen as a “martyr” by the American right, Charlie Kirk was killed on Wednesday in the neck when he participated in a public debate in a university of Utah.

Originally from the suburbs of Chicago, Christian and defender of the port of firearms, this father of two, had abandoned his studies very early to devote himself to activism.

Donald Trump, who plans to attend his funeral, had from the day of the drama questioned the responsibility of the “radical left” before calling for restraint.

But Friday on Fox News, the American president, himself targeted by two assassination attempts during the last electoral campaign, launched an attack in good standing against the left “extremists” and his favorite targets, including former president Joe Biden and the billionaire George Soros.

On the Fox News channel, the influential commentator Jesse Watters said that the murder of Charlie Kirk showed that the conservative camp was attacked. “Whether we accept it or not, they are at war with us,” he said, implicitly targeting progressives.

The murder of Charlie Kirk was however unanimously condemned by the entire American political spectrum.

The United States, a country where there are more firearms in circulation than residents, have experienced an increase in political violence in recent years.

This year already, Melissa Hortman, elected local democratic minnesota, and her husband were killed, and another local elected official was seriously injured.

Funeral

Through the United States, funeral vigils have been organized to pay tribute to the activist.

On the Orem campus, several hundred people wearing red caps Maga (“Make America Great Again”, Donald Trump’s slogan) and holding American flags gathered and prayed in memory of the deceased.

“It always seems insane that it has happened,” said Jonathan Silva, 35, to AFP. “It’s totally surreal”.

His wife Angelina, 27, told AFP how the violent political cleavage prompted the couple to question their plans to have a child. “It seems a little desperate to try to start a family and raise children in a society where there is so much hatred and so much division. »»