The man accused of killing conservative influencer Charlie Kirk last week had joked that the shooter was his ‘doppelganger’ hours before he was arrested.
Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody on Friday in connection with the assassination at Utah Valley University that shocked the world.
It took authorities nearly two days to identify and arrest a suspect, forcing them to release surveillance photos of a suspect wearing a long-sleeved dark top, long pants, sunglasses and a baseball cap with a triangle on it at the university.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has since confirmed that investigators determined Robinson was actively joking with acquaintances on the messaging platform Discord after they noticed he resembled Kirk’s shooter.
‘Those conversations definitely were happening,’ the governor told ABC News. ‘And they did not believe it was actually him – it was all joking until he admitted that it actually was him.’
According to the messages obtained by The New York Times, one user on the platform started off by sharing the surveillance pictures and tagging Robinson’s username, writing ‘wya’ – or ‘where you at’ – with a skull emoji.
Robinson fired back almost instantly: ‘My doppelganger’s trying to get me in trouble,’ he wrote.
‘Tyler killed Charlie!!!!’ another user wrote in the group chat on Thursday afternoon, jokingly tagging Robinson.
Tyler Robinson, 22, joked with his friends that he resembled the man wanted by police for the assassination of Charlie Kirk
Police released surveillance photos of a suspect wearing a long-sleeved dark top, long pants, sunglasses and a baseball cap with a triangle on it at the university
In other messages, Robinson seemed to continue on with his ruse.
When another user joked about turning him in for the $100,000 FBI reward, for example, he quipped, ‘Only if I get a cut.’
Then when someone warned him not to go to McDonald’s – a reference to previous high-profile fugitive Luigi Mangione who was arrested at the fast food joint last December, Robinson responded with a grotesque punchline.
‘Better also get rid of this manifesto and exact copy rifle I have lying around,’ he wrote.
Robinson also seemed to try to divert the blame, suggesting the shooter was ‘CLEARLY… from California.’
But as wall-to-wall coverage of the shooting continued, Robinson seemed to be monitoring it in real time.
‘I heard the ammo had somethin about trans stuff on it, but they aren’t releasing photos or exact quotes and also the claim wasn’t backed by the official fbi, just some dude in the briefing room,’ he wrote.
In fact, the casings found at the scene were later confirmed to be engraved with phrases including ‘Hey fascist! CATCH!’, lyrics from an anti-fascist Italian song, and a sexually explicit meme reference.
Robinson is expected to be formally charged in Kirk’s murder on Tuesday
The 31-year-old conservative activist was debating with students at Utah Valley University on Wednesday when he was shot in the neck
Investigators are now working to determine what may have motivated the Utah native to carry out the assassination, but on Sunday Gov. Cox noted that Robinson appeared to have become more politically radical after dropping out of Utah State University.
‘It seemed to happen kind of after that – after he moved back to the southern part of Utah,’ the governor told NBC News.
‘Clearly there was a lot of gaming going on, friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark Internet, Reddit culture and these other dark places on the Internet where this person was going deep.
‘You saw that on the casings… the memeification that is happening in our society today,’ he added.
The bullets used in Kirk’s death had engravings of ‘transgender and antifascist ideology’ on them, officials said on Thursday.
The governor also said in a separate interview with CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday morning that authorities are looking into whether Robinson’s alleged relationship with his transgender partner may have motivated the suspected killer.
Kirk was known to share anti-transgender rhetoric and was talking about transgender gun violence when he was shot dead.
Lance Twiggs, seen here, the roommate of Robinson, has been confirmed as his lover. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Twiggs is transitioning from male to female
In a a Sunday morning interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Cox confirmed Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin is in a romantic relationship with a transgender partner
Cox confirmed in the interview that Robinson’s roommate was his ‘romantic partner’ and that it is being probed as a possible motive into Kirk’s death.
‘Yes, definitely. And yes, I can confirm that. I know that has been reported and that the FBI has confirmed that as well, that the roommate was a romantic partner, a male transitioning to female,‘ the governor said.
He added that the roommate, who has been identified as Lance Twiggs, has been cooperating with authorities.
Meanwhile, Cox said investigators are also looking into a note Robinson wrote.
On Friday, Jud Hoffman, Vice President of Trust & Safety at the social and gaming platform Discord, said there were ‘communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere’.
Cox appeared to confirm this with Bash, but made it clear the note is still being reviewed.
‘Those are things that are still being processed for accuracy and verification and will be included in charging documents,’ the governor said.
Those who knew Robinson before the shooting were left stunned when he was arrested
Robinson was finally taken into custody after he was persuaded to turn himself in by his father.
He is expected to be formally charged in Kirk’s death on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.
But those who knew him before the shooting were left surprised by his arrest.
A former classmate, Jaida Funk, points him out and says: ‘I always thought I’d see him more as a CEO or something, or a businessman, some billionaire by 26, rather than what’s transpired now’.
The 22-year-old went on to describe Robinson as ‘really well-rounded’ and a ‘sharp, kind, respectful individual, the type of kid that reminds the teacher that they need to assign homework’.
According to the schoolfriend, the passionate mathematician ‘just got along with everyone and everyone liked him’.
‘His family were just a cute, traditional, cookie cutter kind of family – the type of family you’d want to be in,’ she added.
In a separate TikTok video following Robinson’s arrest, another classmate had a different recollection of the student and claimed he was a ‘Reddit kid’.
He admitted that although he did not know the suspected shooter ‘really well’, he spent ‘three straight years’ with him in high school which provided the basis for his description.
‘If you were in high school around that same time, and even probably now, 2018 and those types of kids… well that’s exactly what he was.
‘All I’m going to say is this is the type of s*** that happens when you spend way too much time online and all of a sudden your beliefs are all the way this way or all the way that way and you do some dramatic s*** to please these people that are not your friends.
‘This internet s*** is seriously no joke,’ he concluded.
Those in Robinson’s group chat on Discord were equally shocked by his alleged actions.
‘I truly cannot distinguish if this is for real,’ one member wrote.
