Sky News' James Matthews Reconstructs the Assassination and Manhunt for Charlie Kirk's Killer in Utah

[00:00] That's a lot of people, Utah. I'll tell

[00:02] you what,

[00:06] >> do you know how many mass shooters there

[00:07] have been in America over the last 10

[00:10] years?

[00:10] >> Counting we're not counting gang

[00:12] violence.

[00:15] >> Active shooter at the Charlie Kirk

[00:18] event.

[00:18] >> Go run.

[00:19] >> He's wearing jeans, black shirts, long

[00:20] rifles on top of the building on the far

[00:23] north side. How many injured do we have?

[00:25] Just one person. The assassination of

[00:28] Charlie Kirk has shaken America.

[00:31] >> I was 10 or 15 feet away when it

[00:33] happened.

[00:33] >> I heard a pop and I thought, "No."

[00:36] >> The act.

[00:37] >> Thank you, God, for Charlie Kirk.

[00:40] >> And its impact.

[00:41] >> There is no unity with the people who

[00:43] celebrate Charlie Kirk's assassination.

[00:46] >> Those on the radical left.

[00:47] >> It is a vast domestic terror movement.

[00:51] >> Reactions raise questions about where

[00:54] America goes from here.

[00:58] He was a significant and controversial

[01:01] figure in US politics who became the

[01:04] latest victim of political violence in

[01:08] this country.

[01:11] On the 10th of September, Charlie Kirk

[01:13] was at Utah Valley University

[01:17] on the political road show he called the

[01:20] American Comeback Tour. It's what he

[01:23] did. question and answer sessions on

[01:25] university campuses.

[01:28] [Applause]

[01:30] >> All right, next question. Can we say

[01:32] that we should still be anti-abortion in

[01:35] that scenario?

[01:37] >> Yes.

[01:38] >> And and now that's not the case whether

[01:39] that was a correct invocation. That's

[01:41] >> But that's irrelevant. The Supreme Court

[01:42] has now said no more. So there will be

[01:44] no more.

[01:45] >> Absolutely. Almost never. Definitely

[01:46] >> because speech is not a leftwing value.

[01:49] As a conservative activist and

[01:51] influencer,

[01:52] >> my name is Charlie Kirk.

[01:53] >> He built the youth vote for Donald

[01:55] Trump, even if his right-wing views

[01:57] carved a controversial figure.

[02:00] >> We're going to be here for a couple

[02:01] hours.

[02:01] >> At Utah Valley University, he engaged

[02:04] with a large crowd.

[02:05] >> Get comfortable. Bring the best libs

[02:08] that Utah has to offer.

[02:10] >> What he didn't know was that there was

[02:12] an assassin among them.

[02:15] These are images taken at 11:52 in the

[02:18] afternoon. A killer climbing the stairs

[02:21] to a rooftop. There was little bend in

[02:23] his right leg. Prosecutors say he had a

[02:27] rifle hidden in his trousers.

[02:30] At 12:23, Charlie Kirk was taking

[02:32] questions about gun violence.

[02:35] >> Do you know how many mass shoots there

[02:36] have been in America over the last 10

[02:39] years?

[02:40] >> Yeah. You think he'd already been

[02:41] placed? remarkably his assassin.

[02:44] >> So, there's somebody on the roof over

[02:45] there.

[02:45] >> Was spotted and filmed by a passer by.

[02:48] >> He just ran from uh

[02:50] >> over Where's my finger? Well, from over

[02:53] there, ran in

[02:55] >> and now he's right there. Just saying

[02:59] >> the sighting didn't stop what happened

[03:02] next.

[03:06] >> Charlie Kirk was shot in the throat by a

[03:09] single bullet. positioned above the tent

[03:12] so it would be in the camera made us

[03:14] move.

[03:14] >> What was that?

[03:16] >> He shot. Holy. Holy.

[03:20] >> The single fatal shot spread panic and

[03:24] confusion among the crowd.

[03:28] [Applause]

[03:30] [Music]

[03:34] >> There were gunshots.

[03:36] >> Charlie Kirk was rushed to hospital.

[03:39] Doctors tried but failed to save him.

[03:43] >> This video filmed from inside shows the

[03:46] moment the bullet was fired. On the

[03:49] rooftop is the figure of the assassin

[03:51] beginning his getaway.

[03:54] Surveillance footage shows him running

[03:56] to the back of the rooftop. When he

[03:58] reaches the edge of the building, he

[04:00] jumps down to the ground and drops an

[04:03] item. Prosecutors think this was the

[04:06] rifle.

[04:06] >> All right, everybody. You need to leave

[04:08] the area.

[04:09] >> SWAT teams flooded the streets around

[04:11] the university.

[04:13] >> Sheriff's department, police force, SWAT

[04:15] team, those were they were all over.

[04:18] >> The manhunt tracked the killer's escape

[04:20] route.

[04:22] >> Can you go move those uh phones?

[04:24] >> FBI investigators quickly retrieved

[04:27] clues from the scene, a pampr and a

[04:30] footwear impression. In tracing the

[04:32] steps of the assassin, they found the

[04:35] murder weapon. This is where the gunman

[04:38] ran over this road towards this

[04:41] woodland. And in amongst those trees, a

[04:44] highowered boltaction rifle was

[04:47] discarded and recovered.

[04:51] In Oram, Utah, there was a killer on the

[04:54] loose, but still they came out to grief.

[04:57] >> Thank you, God, for Charlie Kirk.

[05:01] >> Many in this city who'd witnessed the

[05:03] murder.

[05:05] I was maybe 10 or 15 feet away when it

[05:08] happened.

[05:22] >> I was doing okay.

[05:24] And then I was putting my 5-year-old to

[05:26] bed

[05:28] and she had me read her story about

[05:30] love.

[05:33] I just couldn't finish the story. People

[05:36] that are part of uh our church say

[05:40] things like, you know, try and

[05:41] rationalize, oh, he stood up for the

[05:43] Second Amendment and so well, you know,

[05:46] it's like just having an opinion doesn't

[05:48] mean you should get shot.

[05:50] >> I think at times like these, it's

[05:51] important not to focus only on the

[05:53] political side. He has a wife and two

[05:55] kids. Like anybody who's cheering on the

[05:57] death, this man is a monster. I think

[05:59] that's common sense. But I think right

[06:02] now we just need to be mourning for the

[06:03] family and for the country. We lost a

[06:05] good one.

[06:07] >> It was America's response to a tragedy

[06:09] and it was a struggle.

[06:11] >> Please rise for a moment of prayer for

[06:13] Charlie Kirk and his family.

[06:20] >> Could Charlie Kirk's death further

[06:22] divide the United States? And where

[06:24] would that lead? Division didn't seem to

[06:26] be an issue for the president. He

[06:28] pointed the finger of blame and he

[06:30] pointed left.

[06:32] >> For years, those on the radical left

[06:35] have compared wonderful Americans like

[06:37] Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst

[06:41] mass murderers and criminals. This kind

[06:44] of rhetoric is directly responsible for

[06:47] the terrorism that we're seeing in our

[06:49] country today.

[06:51] >> I love you.

[06:54] This was video posted on social media by

[06:57] Charlie Kirk's wife.

[06:59] >> There had been no message of unity from

[07:02] the president. The same applied to

[07:04] prominent voices.

[07:06] >> You have no idea the fire that you have

[07:08] ignited within this wife.

[07:13] The cries of this widow will echo around

[07:17] the world like a battlecry.

[07:19] Something has gone very wrong with a

[07:22] lunatic fringe, a minority, but a

[07:25] growing and powerful minority on the far

[07:28] left.

[07:30] The hunt for Charlie Kirk's killer

[07:32] wasn't easy. It was complicated by the

[07:35] man in charge of the investigation,

[07:38] FBI director Cash Patel. On the day of

[07:41] the murder, he posted on X that the

[07:43] killer was caught, only to post later

[07:46] the suspect had been released. Mr.

[07:49] Patel, did you endanger public safety

[07:51] when you said the killer was in custody?

[07:56] >> Mr. Patel, did you misrepresent the

[07:58] investigation?

[08:01] >> 33 hours into the manhunt, news broke of

[08:05] an arrest. It was the big reveal on

[08:07] Breakfast News by correspondent

[08:11] Donald Trump.

[08:12] >> I think uh with a high degree of

[08:14] certainty, we have him.

[08:17] >> Confirmation came in a news conference.

[08:19] There was the headline.

[08:21] >> Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. We

[08:23] got him.

[08:24] >> And then there was the detail. On the

[08:26] evening of September 11th, a family

[08:29] member of Tyler Robinson reached out to

[08:31] a family friend who contacted the

[08:33] Washington County Sheriff's Office with

[08:35] information that Robinson had confessed

[08:38] to them or implied that he had committed

[08:40] the incident.

[08:41] >> Bullet casings were found engraved with

[08:44] different slogans. One read, "Hey

[08:47] fascist, catch." How do you interpret

[08:51] the engravings on the casings and on the

[08:54] weaponry? I think the uh the clearest

[08:55] one that says catch fascist I there's

[08:59] not and by the way that's like catch

[09:01] like a ball catch this um that's uh I

[09:04] think that that speaks for itself.

[09:07] >> This was the man they arrested

[09:09] 22-year-old Tyler Robinson. He turned

[09:12] himself in with his parents and a family

[09:14] friend.

[09:15] >> Congratulations. You have been selected

[09:17] to receive the resident presidential

[09:19] scholarship from Utah State University.

[09:21] He lived 4 hours away in Washington

[09:23] County, Utah. He was studying to be an

[09:25] electrician. He didn't attend the

[09:27] university where the shooting took

[09:29] place.

[09:30] >> Robinson's mother explained that over

[09:32] the last year or so, Robinson had become

[09:35] more political

[09:37] and had started to lean more to the

[09:39] left, becoming more pro-gay and trans

[09:43] rightsoriented.

[09:45] The authorities say that Robinson was

[09:47] involved romantically with his roommate,

[09:50] who's transitioning from male to female.

[09:53] In a text, prosecutors say he told his

[09:56] roommate he was planning to retrieve his

[09:58] rifle following the shooting from what

[10:01] he called a drop point, but texted,

[10:04] "Most of that side of town got locked

[10:07] down." Other texts read, "Drop what

[10:10] you're doing and look under my

[10:12] keyboard." The roommate found a note. It

[10:14] read, "I had the opportunity to take out

[10:17] Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it."

[10:20] When the roommate asked why, Robinson

[10:22] replied, "I had enough of his hatred.

[10:25] Some hate can't be negotiated out."

[10:28] >> Could you state your name?

[10:29] >> Tyler James Robinson.

[10:31] >> This was Robinson's initial court

[10:33] hearing. He appeared virtually wearing a

[10:36] suicide prevention vest. He was read the

[10:38] charges against him

[10:40] >> for count one aggravated murder

[10:42] >> and listened as he was told the

[10:44] prosecutor's intention that he be put to

[10:47] death.

[10:48] >> We did file just recently within the

[10:50] last few minutes a notice of intent to

[10:51] seek the death penalty that was filed uh

[10:54] by Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray

[10:59] >> at Utah Valley University. When they

[11:01] announced the arrest, they spoke to the

[11:04] victim. Lastly,

[11:07] to my friend Charlie Kirk,

[11:11] rest now, brother. We have the watch and

[11:14] I'll see you in Valhalla.

[11:16] >> At the same news conference, they spoke

[11:18] of political fallout and its dangers.

[11:22] >> History will dictate if this is a

[11:25] turning point for our country,

[11:29] but every single one of us gets to

[11:31] choose right now if this is a turning

[11:33] point for us.

[11:37] The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a

[11:40] murder most shocking, a human tragedy

[11:43] with political implications farreaching

[11:46] and still playing out. James Matthews,

[11:49] Sky News in Utah.