{"id":430064,"date":"2025-09-17T01:04:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T01:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:04:38","slug":"george-zinn-man-falsely-claimed-he-shot-kirk-to-distract-from-real-gunman-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/430064\/","title":{"rendered":"George Zinn: Man falsely claimed he shot Kirk to distract from real gunman, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">George Zinn was one of two people that the police had detained for questioning after conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was fatally shot at Utah Valley University on 10 September. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Police later determined that the two suspects were not involved in the killing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mr Zinn &#8220;intentionally yelled he was the shooter and by doing so, obstructed Law Enforcement from focusing on the actual shooter&#8221;, the sheriff said in a statement. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Court documents filed by campus police allege that Mr Zinn began shouting: &#8220;I shot him &#8211; now shoot me.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">When asked by an officer where the weapon used in the shooting was located, he allegedly responded: &#8220;I am not going to tell you&#8221;, according to the documents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The sheriff said that there was currently no evidence Mr Zinn colluded with the gunman.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Sherriff Smith added that Mr Zinn is also being held for the sexual exploitation of a minor, and that agents found more than 20 images of children &#8220;in various stages of undress and sexual posing&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">On Monday, a judge ordered that Mr Zinn be held without bail, calling him a &#8220;substantial danger&#8221; to the community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was not clear from court records if he had a lawyer.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Mr Zinn is well known among organisers of public events in Salt Lake City, the New York Times reported. &#8220;He showed up frequently to public forums with the intention to disrupt the event or question a high-profile speaker,&#8221; it said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He also has a long history of minor crimes, including an arrest in 2013 for sending a threatening email to the hosts of the Salt Lake City Marathon just days after the Boston Marathon bombing, the newspaper wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Robinson, the prime suspect in the killing was charged on seven counts including aggravated murder, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Charlie Kirk was one of the highest profile conservative activists and media personalities in the US.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Known for his outspoken views on gender, race, and gun rights, Kirk was a polarising figure and a close ally of  President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He was shot while hosting an event at Utah Valley University, in what authorities have described as a targeted attack. President Trump called Mr Kirk &#8220;a patriot&#8221; and said his killing marked a &#8220;dark moment for America&#8221;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Zinn was one of two people that the police had detained for questioning after conservative commentator Charlie&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-430064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115216951889957702","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}