An unlikely end to the 33-hour hunt for suspect

The latest news has been announced by US President Donald Trump in a morning television program.

“I think that with a high degree of certainty, we have it,” Trump said on the Fox & Friends sofa in New York on Friday. “In detention.”

“Essentially, someone who was very close to him returned it.”

It was also Trump who announced for the first time that his political ally, Kirk, died after being killed in the neck while organizing an outdoor event in the presence of around 3,000 people at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.

On Friday morning, during a press conference, officials identified the person in detention as Tyler Robinson, 22.

The suspect lives in St George, Utah, near Zion National Park, around 250 miles (400 km) southwest of the campus where Kirk was shot, noted that BBC Verify.

According to the American BBC CBS partner, two sources of application of the law said that the suspect’s father recognized his son from images disseminated by the FBI.

The sources added that the 22 -year -old had confessed to his father, who urged him to surrender. The parents of the suspects are both registered Republicans, according to the state archives.

Robinson was registered to vote in 2021 as “not affiliated” with a political party, according to the files seen by the BBC.

The father contacted a family friend, who contacted the Washington County Sheriff office with the information.

American marshals have placed Robinson in police custody and informed the FBI, according to sources.

Utah governor Spencer Cox confirmed that “a member of the family of Tyler Robinson had contacted a family friend who contacted the Sheriff’s Bureau of Washington with information that Robinson had confessed to them”.

Cox said the surveillance video shows the suspect arriving on the university campus in a Gray Dodge Challenger at 08:29 Local time (14:29 GMT) – almost four hours before the shooting.

The governor told journalists that investigators had interviewed a family member who said the suspect had become more political in recent years.

Cox said: “The family member referred to a recent incident during which Robinson came to dine before September 10, and in the conversation with another family member, Robinson said that Charlie Kirk came to UVU.”

There was a mention of the way “Kirk was full of hatred and broadcasting of hatred”.

COX said the investigators also spoke to a suspect roommate who had shown them messages with an account named “Tyler” on the Discord messaging application.

The messages referred to the need to recover a rifle from “a fall point” and the rifle left in a bush, wrapped in a towel.

The FBI said on Thursday that they had found the weapon suspected of murder – an imported Boulon .30-06 action rifle – wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near the campus.

Cox told journalists that inscriptions had been found engraved on blines recovered with the rifle, which had a telescope mounted on it.

The inscriptions included “hey fascist! Catch!” And “Bella Ciao” and “If you read this, you are gay, lmao”.

Bella Ciao means “goodbye beautiful” in Italian. It is also the title of a song dedicated to the Italian resistance that fought the occupying troops of Nazi Germany.

The Governor of Utah said he was not aware of any other potential arrest in the investigation.

The Sheriff of the County of Utah, Mike Smith, said that it was a “vast, complicated and very fast” investigation which had been “very trying”.

FBI director Kash Patel told journalists that the crime scene was important, but had been treated quickly and forensic evidence had been recovered.

He said that the first federal agents had arrived on the scene some 16 minutes after Kirk had been shot.

“Last night, the suspect was placed in police custody at 10 p.m. local time,” said Patel.

The director of the FBI said that his agents had screened 11,000 tracks received on Friday morning.

The arrest occurred after the FBI published granular photos of a “person of interest” sought for filming.

He wore sunglasses, converse shoes and a distinctive long -sleeved “long -sleeved” with an American flag and an eagle.

After shooting Kirk on a roof, the suspect fell on the side of the building and ran.

While going from the roof, he left impressions of palm where forensic experts went to collect DNA.

He also left an impression of shoes which indicated that he wore converse shoes, similar to those worn by the suspect in the surveillance images.

After depositing the building, video surveillance showed that the man moving on a grassy area before entering traffic.

He crossed the street in a wooded area, where the firearm would have been used in the shooting was found later.

Patel said on Wednesday that another potential suspect had been briefly detained for interrogation before being released.

Another person – seen in viral videos on social networks – was arrested immediately after the shooting, but was determined not to be the shooter.