We learned last week that the person who turned in Tyler Robinson was his father. Reports from various news sources suggested that when Robinson’s father confronted him he confessed to the crime and then threatened to kill himself.
Tyler Robinson’s father recognized the young man as his son, a law enforcement official told CNN. When Robinson was confronted by his father, he confessed, another source said.
Now that he’s in custody, the word has been that he is not cooperating with the investigation and has lawyered up. It’s too soon to know for sure but it looks like he might be planning to plead not guilty and try to get the death penalty off the table. And if that happened, it could set up a strange circumstance where his own father becomes a chief witness of his confession of guilt.
Meanwhile, other reports have indicated that in the hours after the crime Robinson joked with his friends online about how much he looked like the person seen in the photos released by authorities.
The F.B.I. had just released two grainy surveillance images of a skinny young man in a cap and sunglasses walking in a stairwell on the Utah Valley University campus, and had asked for the public’s help in identifying the suspect.
Tagging Mr. Robinson’s username on Discord, a messaging platform, the acquaintance attached the images and wrote “wya” — where you at? — with a skull emoji, suggesting that Mr. Robinson, 22, looked like the man being sought.
Mr. Robinson replied within a minute. His “doppelganger,” he wrote, was trying to “get me in trouble.”
“Tyler killed Charlie!!!!” another user wrote, apparently in jest…
After Mr. Robinson joked that the gunman was his look-alike, another user suggested that the group could turn Mr. Robinson in and get the $100,000 reward that the F.B.I. was offering.
“Only if I get a cut,” Mr. Robinson responded.
At some point he must have known that his time was running out. According to a report by the Washington Post he left a confession in a different chat group just two hours before turning himself in.
The message was sent Thursday night, about two hours before officials said Robinson was taken into custody…
“im surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments,” the message, posted at 7:57 p.m. local time in Utah, continued. “thanks for all the good times and laughs, you’ve all been so amazing, thank you all for everything.”…
The New York Times reported on a conversation in a different Discord chat group earlier the same day. In that conversation, Robinson joked that a “doppelgänger” was trying to get him in trouble after law enforcement released images of a shooting suspect who resembled Robinson. Cox confirmed the existence of that conversation on Sunday and said Robinson’s friends “did not believe it was actually him” at that point. The person who provided other Discord messages to The Post said they are from a different group.
Apparently, no one in the discord chat where Robinson confessed reacted at first. Maybe they thought it was a joke? It wasn’t until the next morning that one person responded to news of the arrest saying the confession appeared to be true. One person asked the group to pray for Tyler’s repentance and to say a prayer for Charlie Kirk and his family.
Obviously, if this is confirmed then Robinson is cooked. The confession to his father may not have been completely clear but “It was me at UVU yesterday” written from his own phone seems pretty ironclad as a confession.
The only question left now is why, though I think that debate is also pretty close to being settled.
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