Tyler Robinson Allegedly Joked About Charlie Kirk Manhunt Hours After Assassination on Discord

The man accused of killing Charlie Kirk reportedly made jokes to friends about the manhunt just hours after he allegedly killed the conservative influencer. Investigators say he made references to the cartoon Garfield. Luigi Manion allegedly saying his quote doppelganger was the one who killed Charlie Kirk in front of thousands of people. Let's go over those shocking messages and what we're now learning about what may have motivated the 22-year-old who allegedly killed Charlie Kirk. We're on the case presented by Law and Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. [Music] Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old, is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday in Utah to face charges for the first time for allegedly killing Charlie Kirk. Here's Robinson's mug shot after his dad and a youth minister helped turn him into authorities on Thursday night last week. Right now, he's being held in a special unit of a jail in Utah where he can be watched around the clock. The authorities say that Robinson killed Kirk in a political assassination, but specifically why Robinson would allegedly kill Charlie Kirk has not yet been disclosed. Now, I'll get into what we do know about his roommate and what the alleged romantic relationship with that roommate could tell us about a possible motive in just a moment. But I want to talk about Tyler Robinson and what he reportedly told people about the Kirk assassination before we knew he was the suspect and apparently before his friends knew he was the suspect. While the motive may somewhat be up for debate, it is very clear that this 22-year-old spent a lot of time online. He played a lot of video games and he chatted with people on Discord, which is a messaging app that gamers often use. The New York Times has text messages that Robinson sent friends on Discord in the hours after Charlie Kirk was killed. And he allegedly didn't shy away from at least having conversation about the story that at that point had grabbed headlines around the world. Now, you remember this picture, the person of interest photo that law enforcement put out, the man with sunglasses, a hat with a triangle logo on it, and an American flag shirt. Now, in this group chat that Tyler Robinson was reportedly a part of, a friend sent this picture noting that the person of interest looked like Tyler Robinson. And on the app, the friend made a joke at Tyler saying, quote, "Wa with a skull emoji or where you at?" Now, Robinson allegedly responded saying that his quote doppelganger was trying to get him into trouble. Now, whoever the texter was wasn't the only person who noticed the resemblance between Tyler Robinson and the person of interest photo. According to the FBI, Tyler's own family saw the picture and then confronted him about whether he was the killer, and that's when they brought him to the police station. Now, the group chat reportedly continued with someone joking, quote, "Tyler killed Charlie." All of this was happening around 1 p.m. Thursday last week, which was around 24 hours after the Kirk assassination and about 9 hours before Robinson was turned into the police station. The group chat continued with a user mentioning the $100,000 reward that the FBI had put out for information leading to an arrest and how they should probably turn Robinson in. Again, seemingly joking, not realizing that Robinson was actually the person who allegedly killed Charlie Kirk. And Robinson responded to that saying, quote, "Only if I get a cut," with a picture of John Arbuckle, who is the cat Garfield's owner in that famous comic strip series. Now, the jokes weren't done in this group chat. Another friend said that Robinson should not go to McDonald's, which is a nod to Luigi Manion, who was arrested at a McDonald's and Altuna in central Pennsylvania after allegedly killing United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Midtown Manhattan. to which Tyler Robinson allegedly said, quote, "Better also get rid of this manifesto and the exact copy rifle I have lying around." Now, the FBI said they found the rifle that Robinson allegedly used to kill Charlie Kirk in a wooded area near Utah Valley University, a high-powered bolt-action rifle with a scope that Robinson allegedly used to fire one round from 200 yards away on top of a building that struck Charlie Kirk in the neck. Now, Robinson then hinted at the type of political motivation behind this shooting, saying the shooter, quote, clearly was from California. He also seemed to mention the inscriptions on the unused shell casings that the FBI found by the rifle. At the time, there was a report out saying that there were transgender sayings on the rounds. And in the group chat, Robinson allegedly said that those must have been fabricated by a member of law enforcement, saying it was quote, "a dude in the briefing room." Now, he might have thought by playing it off as a joke in this group chat, he could push his friends off the trail that he had left behind. But the FBI says they tracked Robinson's car from Utah Valley University, where this shooting happened, to his family home in southwestern Utah, roughly 3 hours away. And we saw a car that fit the description of the vehicle the FBI said he drove parked outside the family home in Washington, Utah. The group chat also wasn't the only Discord conversation that Robinson allegedly had related to the Kirk killing. He also spoke to someone who law enforcement called his roommate in the police report. Police contacted that roommate and the roommate showed them messages that Tyler sent. The affidavit reads that Tyler allegedly stated that he needed to retrieve a rifle from drop point, leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel. The messages also refer to engraving bullets and a mention of a scope and the rifle being unique. Messages from the contact Tyler in this Discord conversation also mentioned that he had quote changed outfits. Now, the roommate is cooperating with investigators according to law enforcement, but that roommate may be at the center of what the motive was for this alleged political assassination. Axios reports the roommate was someone who Robinson was in a romantic relationship with and that roommate was a transgender person. They were transitioning from a man to a woman. Axio said that sources told them that the roommate was quote a gasast that Robinson was the alleged killer and the roommate turned over all messages with Robinson when they were informed. Kirk was critical of the transgender community. In fact, he was giving an answer to a question related to members of the transgender community in mass shootings at the time he was shot. Axio says authorities are looking into whether Robinson wanted to allegedly kill Kirk because of Kirk's views on gender identity. Utah Governor Spencer Cox said authorities are looking into how Robinson reportedly became radicalized. Family members told authorities that Robinson became more political in recent years, but it's unclear how he got to that point and where he allegedly decided that he wanted to kill Charlie Kirk. Cox also said that they're looking into whether leftist groups had any knowledge of Robinson's plan ahead of time. Not everyone though believes that Robinson is the one who killed Charlie Kirk. His grandmother spoke to the Daily Mail. She said that the authorities had the wrong guy. She said the Robinson family, they're all Republicans who supported Donald Trump and she doesn't know of any Democrats in her family. But Utah Governor Cox said on Meet the Press that Robinson's political beliefs were very different from his families. Now, we know that Robinson allegedly spoke of how he didn't like Charlie Kirk before the assassination. According to his arrest document, at a dinner before September 10th, he allegedly mentioned that Kirk was going to be in Utah at Utah Valley University as part of a college campus tour. Before I get back to this episode of On the Case, one of the most watched shows on YouTube, I need to talk about our partner and sponsor, Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. They have more than a thousand attorneys and they win a lot. They've recovered over $25 billion for more than 500,000 clients. And in the past few months, a client in Florida received $12 million after the insurance company offered just $350,000. In Pennsylvania, a client was awarded $26 million. That is 40 times the insurers's $650,000 offer. Another client in Pennsylvania received $29 million after being offered only $500,000. Even if you don't think your case is worth millions of dollars, why not fight for what you deserve? Morgan and Morgan makes it so easy to file a claim. You can do it with just eight easy clicks on your phone. So, if you've been hurt and you need to start a claim, go to www.forthethepeople.com/otc. You can also scan this QR code on your screen or click the link below. Governor Cox also said, "As everyone's trying to figure out a motive, it's important to look at the world that Robinson was part of online." He said, quote, "Clearly, there was a lot of gaming going on. friends have confirmed that there was kind of that deep dark internet, the Reddit culture, and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep. That is clear in the inscriptions on the shell casings found by the alleged murder weapon left behind after the attack. And here are the inscriptions that we know about and what it appears that they mean. The first one read, quote, notices bulge ow. What's this? Now, that's a reference to a meme that's on the internet. And here's the original meme per the account know your meme on X. It's a lot to explain, but it's a line that people use in some deep parts of the internet to troll people. For our purposes though, it again shows that Robinson was very much online a lot. The next casing allegedly read, "Hey fascist, catch with an up arrow symbol, a right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols." Now, these arrows seem to be a video game reference of some kind, and it's what you would use for a combination in the game Hell Divers 2, a third person shooter game that was released last year. Another example that Tyler Robinson allegedly spent a lot of time locked into screens. Another unfired casing reportedly said, "Oh, Bella Chow, Bella Chow, Bella Chow, Chow, Chow." Now, those are lyrics to a song that was sung by Italians who fought against occupying Nazi forces during World War II in the United States. It's become a rallying cry for anti-fascist and leftist groups, and it's been saying at protests in recent years. The last unfired casing allegedly read, "If you read this, you are gay, LMA." Now, these casings are key evidence in proving that this was an alleged politically motivated attack beyond the fact that Charlie Kirk himself was a political figure speaking at a political event. Authorities said when Robinson was confronted about the shooting by his dad, he confessed or alluded to being the person responsible. Governor Cox said this weekend that Robinson is not cooperating with investigators and he has not confessed to authorities. Cox also said that Robinson was quote deeply indoctrinated by leftist ideology. Joining us now is retired NYPD detective David Sarnney. Thanks for taking the time to be with us as we're kind of learning a little bit more about Tyler Robinson and how he communicated with people after allegedly killing and we'll say alleged because it's innocent until proven guilty and we'll see how the the legal process plays out in the murder of Charlie Kirk. Since we've learned that Tyler Robinson's the person who authorities say did this 22-year-old from Utah, what stands out to you with this suspect? >> Again, we're seeing Thanks for having me. Again, we're seeing another 20-year-old, 20something year old involving himself or herself into this violent uh just radicalizing themselves to become violent and then take their aggressions out on people they've never met. They just develop this whole thing in their minds. They see clips of whatever they're looking at and then develop this and they selfradicalize. That's what it seems to be. This kid comes from a relatively good home. It's nothing that should be out of the ordinary. I mean, he went to college and all of a sudden he transformed into this radicalized individual who just, and this is what we're concerned about. We're seeing younger and younger shooters involved. That's something that stands out to me greatly. I mean, the crime itself, fantastic work by the investigators involved to get 33 hours and get somebody identified that quickly is is is immense amount of investigative work and the resources available. But that sticks out to me is that we're seeing a lot of young people who cannot handle things out of their lifestyle and just radicalize themselves to become so violent and decides to, you know, kid has no criminal record and then he decides to go off and shoot somebody he's never met before. Well, and it's too like you look at what he's accused of doing and it's not just and and this wouldn't have been any better, but I remember in the in the initial part of this there the internet convicted this older man who was it seemed like he was in the crowd and he was detained and everybody's like they got the shooter. Even Utah Valley University said we had the guy and then that was just bad information. Um I mean this was this was planned. I mean, he's from 200 yards out on top of a building. And to go from no criminal record to an assassination allegedly with a sniper rifle. Uh that just is is something that seems at least to me on a completely different level. I mean, what do you make of the planning it seems that went into this? Not only knowing that where Charlie Kirk was going to be cuz he was on tour, but to know the building he was going to be in, uh, you know, to allegedly be on shooting at someone where Charlie Kirk was going to be. It just seems like the level of planning of this brought it to a completely different level. >> That that's the other thing too. I mean, we're seeing more and more of these and this is this is becoming unfortunately consistent pattern. The planning to do the do what they're doing happens. It's the after effect the aftermath which is beneficial to the police because they don't they they plan to do their action but as far as the flight direction of flight or the flight they do is always flawed which is beneficial for law enforcement to do. But again, you're seeing this. I mean, this is he 200 yards. You only 200 yards away to fire one round and do what he did. That that takes practice. It takes some skill, but the skill of of the shoot is different than the skill of the flight, which is again back to the beneficial part of that. But we talk about social media. We're talking about uh this whole world that he created it for himself and become such a an individual where he was so social and now he's no longer social. He becomes this anti-fascist and this word comes up all the time and we'll deal with that at another point. But we're seeing this planning this operation. These kids are not they're not this is not mental illness. This is definitely not mental illness. We keep going through that. It's not mental illness. What he's doing is a calculated assassination. This is what it seems to be based on what we have now. Again, he has to be innocent. You know, he's innocent, proven guilty. He has been arrested. So, the prosecution is going to have to build all this information they have to then put it on on trial. >> I can see someone look at this investigation. You think of 33 hours and I mean that's, you know, it took weeks to find Brian Coberger in Idaho. It took days to find Luigi Manion and and eventually he's at the McDonald's in central PA, you know, and in this case, you're talking less than than 48 hours to to track someone down. Um, really what what lucked out I think for investigators is well, let's kind of talk about that because I think it was the picture they put out of this person of interest and you even have Tyler Robinson's friends who are saying this this looks like you and they didn't really realize it. But then you have a family member that comes forward and really does something that takes a I think a lot of emotional strength to be able to turn someone in like that knowing what he's going to face. But as far as an investigation goes, I mean, is that how much of this is strategy and how much is it luck that that picture you had a family member that saw it? >> Well, that that's the you know, when we talk about the investigations, they recover the firearm, which is great. They recover forensics off of the firearm and I believe a towel nearby, but the benefit of of surveillance videos everywhere, and that's one thing that people do forget there's so many surveillance videos and be able to track from that point in time and you have to go backwards and then go forward. So they probably went backwards from the shoot just to look for all the cameras that way and then get photos of something that looks similar to the person maybe in flight and then comparison to videos of of a person entering the campus. So once you get the best video available putting that surveillance photo out you have to put those things out. The reason why is you want the public to get involved because when you talk about these investigations you only have maybe dozens of eyes as investigators. When that photo goes out, you have hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions, looking at that photo. And and this is where you see his friends going, I think that that looks like you. And I I credit what the work was done because the amount that they had to go fast and that was what it comes down to. These these campuses are are smart in getting these cameras down because we've seen unfortunately so many shooting incidents now in campuses. These cameras are everywhere and it's beneficial for law enforcement to have access and get the best video shot available. >> And going back to just Tyler Robinson's mindset because not only is there the planning and it's like there's a different gear in your mind if you're actually going to do this to somebody, no matter what you think of someone's political beliefs is what he's accused of doing to Charlie Kirk. then to be in a group chat kind of making jokes, you know, even trying to push friends away, saying like, "Oh, I, you know, give me a cut of the $100,000 if you turn me in." Like, that also just seems like there's an extra gear in your mind to try and even blend back into society to think that you would actually get away with this. >> Yeah. The covert, he's trying to be covert about it, but you know, that's the thing. The benefit of that, you know, he's trying to be someone else. He's going to say maybe it, you know, whatever defense he's going to utilize at that point will be one thing. But yeah, he had nowhere to go. That was the thing. He had no place to go after this, after the event, after the shooting. He had no place to go. So, he's just going to say, "It's not me. It's not me. It's not me." But eventually, we'll find law enforcement will find that it's you. This is a murder. It's a murder case. He He confronted him. He told him, "Tell them, you know, turn yourself in." And you have what you have at this point. And would people do that? I I can't see why not. I mean, you want to hide your son, your daughter, and it's your your kid, but this is a murder. This is a cold, calculated murder. Who's to say he's not going to do it to you or your family at that point or your sister, brothers, or anything else like that? Well, and I think too, I mean, just looking at those those messages and then, you know, he, you know, there's there's such a big political part of this and on this show, we try to stay away from the politics because so much of this was about the manhunt, the investigation, how this case is going to play out. But when you're talking about a political assassination, you know, in this case, we're looking at, you know, the the governor of Utah said, you know, he had leftist ideology. He lived with someone who was, you know, a member of the transgender community. And I'm not kind of talking about that issue, but that does appear to be we're circling in on somewhat of a motive. And I think my question is more for us in the public. You, you know, many people could look and say like, okay, there we go. Charlie Kirk was on the right. He's on the left. That's what it was. But in terms of an investigation, what is the true definition of what a motive actually is? >> A motive is to see the what. You know, a lot of times when you talk about these investigations, you always you'll get the when. You'll get the when, the how, the what, the who, the why is always something that's always been out in the stratosphere. Sometimes you get the answer, sometimes you don't. And you know, when we talk about robber basic investigations like a robbery or burglary, we get to a point as to why you get that. But when it comes to these type of uh, you know, murders, these type an assassination of a public figure, they sometimes will then reach a pulpit. So the why will come out. He probably you'll never hear the real reason as to why unless it comes out in court and that's why the investigators have to find the why through a background through going a deep dive into his personal life during this time and that's why social media gets looked at uh bank records all these things because we have to determine is this the only person involved was he funded by this where he get the gun from this all things that come into play as investigation goes forward >> and and I know and and I mean I think back to the Coberger case because that was a high-profile one recently. Like we don't have the motive in that one, but there was a mountain of evidence that clearly he was the person who did it and I think if he had gone to trial, he was going to be found guilty and and sentenced to death in Idaho. In fact, then then he takes the plea deal and we may never know the why in that case. In a case like this where it also seems like law enforcement is going to just have a lot of evidence. Um not only he apparently confessed to his own father but now is not cooperating with the investigation. How important beyond closure is at this point that we find out what the why is? >> Uh, a lot of times you won't. Um, and that's, you know, this is what happens since his, since he's not cooperating. He's lawyered up in a sense he has an attorney. They're not going to talk anymore, which is within his rights. You're not going to know, you know, we could build a why. We could build based on background. You could build on everything we can see as to why unless you have some true documentation saying I did this because like a manifesto which you've seen by other people who've been involved in these type of things or postings on social media will get to that point but you know this is that why you'll get you'll not get it from him because I unless his attorneys decide to kind of put him on the stand and say this isn't me or whatever it's going to be but I you know I don't see any at you know district at any defense attorney wanting to put him on the stand as the district attorney is going to just, you know, put him pretty bury him on the stand. >> And you wonder too because this is at this point it's a state case which I think from uh a visual part of it, cameras can be allowed in court in Utah. If this is a federal case, we won't see anything and they'll just be courtroom sketches. Um, I know you're on the investigative side of it, but what typically goes into when you have a case like this where it was politically motivated? Um, it's of interest to the president and and many people who are are very politically involved who might want to see federal charges against him. What's typically what goes into deciding whether there could be some federal charges here? >> Well, that'll be maybe they'll look into a firearm, something along that makes it an interstate an interstate uh event. He lives in Utah, you know, that's why he kind of pushes off a California thing. He's putting a lot of things into play. It It's not going to be easy. I guarantee you the uh Department of Justice is looking as ways in which they can go federalally. But statewise, what you're doing as investigator is building that case so when the the prosecutor presents that case, everything you brought to that to the table for that can prove the person beyond a reasonable doubt. That's what it comes down to. You know, we had this I always go through this with my my students when I teach is probable cause gets you is kind of like more than reasonable suspicion. You get enough to make the arrest, but you have to build on that arrest. And that's why you have the firearm there. Apparently, the tile has his DNA on it. They found item the the firearm has his DA on DNA on it. Can that be challenged? Absolutely. In court, but there's more and more building up now. That's why they do the so they do the scrub. They look through social media. They want to see if there's anything else, any transactions, credit card transactions, any monetary transactions. I guarantee you they've they've got subpoenas for records for Discord and all these other things to see what other trans what other conversations he's had because he's, you know, this doesn't happen in in a vacuum. So, there's got to be somewhere along the line. And that's why you build that case because you're not going to get it from the from the defendant at this point. You're going to get it from the evidence that the detectives, the investigators bring to the table and then give it to the prosecutor and say, "Here you go. do your job. >> And and I know that in the in the affidavit that we have um to this point, probable cause document, that his family had said had become more political in recent years. And it doesn't really go deeper into that because there's clearly a lot of people I know have gotten more political in recent years. And there's even people I know who aren't friends anymore because they, you know, and I I think everybody's family has had that where people just I haven't, you know, with somebody, but like you know, you just see people that are tensions are high in the political world. There's still an extra gear here to go from I'm frustrated with an issue to I'm going to assassinate somebody. How do you go through years of social media to figure out exactly what that looks like? >> I I wish you could. I wish there's a way in which you could figure that out. I mean, for we we always look at we always see the FBI goes to active shooters and the like. We always see this coming as into play. But here's the problem. the the when it happens, you know, we've seen people get radicalized, become angry on one side of the other political spectrum. But to to be violent and to do that action at that moment in time, that's something we cannot predict. And that's the one thing we talk about when we talk about these investigations and these shooters is, you know, we know we and that's the thing. The only way we know about the shooting is if somebody tells us prior to the incident taking place. And that you know all these we see all these precursors constantly precursors precursor precursors but very few people go to violent extents that to like in this case the defendant seems to have gone in this case. That's it boggles the mind because everyone goes through political spectrums back and forth, left, right, center, middle, whatever it's going to be, up, down. But to become so radicalized at an age that he is, and I and I'm talking like from a detective perspective, we're seeing more and more kids not able to handle stresses or never being told no as kids. And then eventually they're like, "Yes, this is what I want to do." And then they just they come they become martyed for a moral a broken moral compass cause that they create this higher level of they consider morality and it's not you're murdering somebody and you're murdering for somebody in this case for speech. That's what this is what this is. It's not anything else that radicalization we see it. We don't know why it it triggers though to make action. That's the thing we always see it just happens. And and I think a scary scary part of it too because like words like radicalize, extremist um for a long time those were really only associated with like ISIS inspired attacks and in a lot of those cases you have young kids who are exposed to parts of the internet that I think for a long time we didn't really understand but now it's like so many of these cases whether it's this one I think back to gosh I mean what what you know mass shooting do you want to pick unfortunately and so often it's this part of the internet that I think is missed in a lot of the conversation because you know for me it's Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I started a Tik Tok recently. Like what he's on is something I can't even comprehend from a law enforcement perspective. I mean Discord is one that comes up a lot. Uh these video games that it's not like you can go to a store and buy them anymore and it's like they're in a weird corner of the internet. How do you police this and try and figure out these threats? Well, you can't really police it. What you have to do, unfortunately, is not just police it. You have to find a way, you know, Discord. That's where the young people go. My son is on Discord. He plays video games and the like that. You have to monitor as a parent, but you know, unless you're going to hyper monitoring and start doing surveillance on these things. Now, you're talking about governmental interference in your your right to do things, your right to just be on the internet. That was the whole thing about freedom and all this. You do what you can, but you you can monitor it. We have, you know, there are there are law enforcement agencies that do monitor these things, but in you know, Discord, there's other ones, there's things that I I've never seen, but I can tell you Discord is a is a huge my son has met numerous people through Discord. And what happens is, as everything else, since kids don't go out in the streets anymore, they gravitate via social media. And who knows who's on social media because you really don't see who they are. And that's the other thing or you know this radicalization or this grouping again you become very isolated. They start wearing their headphones. You never hear anything that's going on. You hear laughter laughter in the room but you don't see anything. You know as a parent he's 20ome years old. So, you know, where did this how did this all of a sudden change the frenzy the people that he's associated with help change it because individually it doesn't happen as much but somewhere along the line there's that that group mentality that hive mind that comes together where they say this is bad this is bad this is bad and you start agreeing with them and you're like you know what I'm going to I'm going to be the guy I'm going to be the holding cfield I'm going to be the catcher in the Ryan go out there and save save the world >> right and it's it's just it's hard I mean I think it's just that's just the constant that seems to come up in so many of these stories. Very different situation from some of the others we've seen in a lot of ways, but I mean still like once you saw like you know those bullet inscriptions meaning internet references, I had no idea what they were talking about. You kind of felt like once again we're talking about you know these these types of cases and we'll see how the legal part of this plays out. He's due in court on Tuesday. Um retired NYPD detective David Sarnney, always great to have you. Thanks for being with us. >> Thank you for having me and stay safe. >> That will do it for on the case presented by Law and Crime. Subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time. [Music]