Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, grew up in a quiet, close-knit community in Washington, Utah, where most neighbors attended the same neighborhood church and know each other by their first name. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m shocked,\u201d said Kristin Schwiermann, a 66-year-old neighbor. \u201cThat\u2019s not the kid I knew.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like most of the people in the community, Robinson, his parents and two brothers attended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints church less than a mile away, Scwiermann said. <\/p>\n
So it was strange to Schwiermann and others when the quiet neighborhood became filled with strange vans, SUVs and other unmarked police cars at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday. She wondered if it had anything to do with the shooting of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, but she had no inkling it would involve Tyler Robinson. <\/p>\n
Three doors down, inside the Robinson home, a drama was unfolding. <\/p>\n
Tyler Robinson\u2019s father, Matt, came to realize his son was the focus of a desperate manhunt as images of him in a long-sleeve T-shirt and jeans began flashing across television and computer screens nationwide.<\/p>\n
The family called their church bishop \u2014 also a neighbor \u2014 when Robinson threatened to take his own life, according to a law enforcement source who was not authorized to discuss the investigation. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This photo released by the Utah Governor\u2019s Office shows Tyler Robinson. <\/p>\n
(Utah Governor\u2019s Office via Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Robinson had been close to his parents and two brothers growing up, and would often go on outings camping or hunting, Schwiermann said. According to public records, both of his parents held hunting licenses. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re close, hardworking and smart,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Robinson attended Riverside Elementary, about a half-mile away from the family home, and where Schwiermann also worked as head custodian. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was quiet, but he had friends in school, and he never caused problems,\u201d Schwiermann said.<\/p>\n
He had been regularly active in the church when he was a child, but she said he attended less as he grew older.<\/p>\n
He graduated from Pine View High School in St. George in 2021, and Schwiermann described him as bright and good with his schoolwork, which helped him earn a scholarship.<\/p>\n
His mother, Amber Robinson, wrote on her Facebook page in 2020 about her son\u2019s college aptitude test score, and posted a video of Robinson reading a letter for a scholarship. <\/p>\n
Robinson attended Utah State University in 2021, where he majored in engineering, but took leave after one semester. <\/p>\n
He later attended Dixie Technical College, where school officials said he was in his third year of study in the electrical apprenticeship program. <\/p>\n
There are no signs that Robinson has a criminal record in the state of Utah, based on his name and birth date.<\/p>\n
Robinson had registered as nonpartisan in Utah, while both of his parents were registered Republicans, according to registration data reviewed by The Times. His father worked with granite countertops and his mother was a licensed social worker.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A man prays at a makeshift memorial set up at Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix after the shooting death of Charlie Kirk.<\/p>\n
(Ross D. Franklin \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n
At a press conference announcing Robinson\u2019s arrest Friday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said a family member told investigators, \u201cRobinson had become more political in recent years,\u201d and expressed dislike for Kirk, who Robinson said was \u201cfull of hate\u201d and \u201cspreading hate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Investigators are still looking through evidence and trying to determine a motive in the slaying. <\/p>\n
Along with a bolt-action rifle that was abandoned in a wooded area, investigators also recovered ammunition that bore various markings, according to authorities. <\/p>\n
Engraving on one bullet casing in the rifle read, \u201cHey fascist! Catch!\u201d according to Cox. <\/p>\n
Other casings bore references to memes from online chat rooms, including \u201cnotices, bulges, OwO, what\u2019s this?\u201d and \u201cIf you read this, you are gay LMAO.\u201d One was etched with lyrics from an Italian antifascism song from World War II<\/p>\n
When asked about the motive of the gunman, Cox suggested the \u201cHey fascist\u201d marking clearly showed the gunman\u2019s intent: \u201cI think that speaks for itself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But experts in extremism said it was too early to ascribe a motive, especially based on the markings on ammunition. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt is increasingly difficult to immediately ascribe motivation as many lone young assailants are often a mix of grievance, mental distress and aggressions picked up in social circles and online,\u201d said Brian Levin, professor emeritus at Cal State San Bernardino and founder of its Center for the Study of Hate. <\/p>\n
\u201cVerbiage, memes, targeting, crude humor and cultural references that are immediately available often telegraph motives for violent symbolic attacks, but can also be amorphous or disjointed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Joan Donovan, assistant professor of journalism at Boston University and an expert on extremism, said the initial rumors about the bullet casings being marked with Antifa or trans ideology symbols seemed too obvious.<\/p>\n
The messages on the casings reminded Donovan of other recent manifestos and mass shooters who used memes, like the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand, shooter who killed 51 people in a mosque and an Islamic center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith memes the message was really about talking to other would be shooters,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t about communicating to the media or communicating even a serious message.\u201d<\/p>\n
The engravings on Robinson\u2019s bullet casings come across as a hodgepodge of messages that don\u2019t fit together comfortably, Donovan said. In online misogynistic circles, someone who trades in these types of cynical messages could be described as \u201cblack pilled\u201d according to Donovan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s both impostor and mocking at the same time,\u201d Donovan said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about \u2018black pilled\u2019 youth and those that are just upset with the entire system, it does make sense that you\u2019d have someone engraving bullets with very nihilistic hubris.\u201d<\/p>\n
Los Angeles Times staff writers Anita Chabria and Jenny Jarvie contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, grew up in a quiet, close-knit community…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":223033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[120987,19719,88511,51,18030,120986,120985,26896,67653,120988,50,6976,120990,11246,52,120674,424,120989],"class_list":{"0":"post-223032","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-bullet-casing","9":"tag-charlie-kirk","10":"tag-hate","11":"tag-headlines","12":"tag-investigator","13":"tag-joan-donovan","14":"tag-kristin-schwiermann","15":"tag-meme","16":"tag-message","17":"tag-motive","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-parent","20":"tag-professor-emeritus","21":"tag-robinson","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-tyler-robinson","24":"tag-utah","25":"tag-various-marking"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115195918810035257","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}