Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk, is not cooperating with investigators, Utah Governor Spencer Cox revealed on Sunday.
“He has not confessed to authorities. He is not cooperating, but all the people around him are cooperating,” Cox said during an interview on ABC’s This Week.
Robinson is currently being held without bail and is set to be formally charged on Tuesday.
Cox, a Republican who has received praise for his calls for calm in the aftermath of Kirk’s killing, gave several updates about the investigation in interviews on Sunday, offering insight into where authorities were focusing their search for a motive.
The governor told NBC that the 22-year-old Robinson “does come from a conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family… There clearly was a leftist ideology with this assassin in recent years.” He said that conclusion was reached based on investigators’ interviews with family members, but did not provide any further details.
He also said that Robinson had a fascination with “Reddit culture and other dark places of the internet,” something that was evident in the engraving left on bullet casings found at the scene.
Read more: Tyler Robinson, Suspect in Charlie Kirk Killing, Left Messages With No Motive
Cox said in another interview with CNN that Robinson’s romantic partner and roommate was transgender, “transitioning from male to female.”
“This partner has been incredibly cooperative, had no idea that this was happening and is working with investigators right now,” said Cox, who declined to speculate whether that relationship was connected to the motive.
The updates come three days after Robinson was arrested following an intensive hunt for Kirk’s killer.
Authorities have not yet revealed the full details of how Robinson was detained, but multiple reports suggested that his father urged him to surrender after recognizing his son in the grainy surveillance footage released by police.
“Essentially somebody that was very close to him turned him in,” President Donald Trump said on “Fox and Friends” Friday morning.
CNN reported that Robinson was initially cooperating with police, but subsequently stopped talking after retaining a lawyer on Friday morning.
Robinson grew up in a conservative Utah family and community and became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at a young age, according to a church spokesperson, although it’s unclear if he still attended services.
He appeared to be a gifted student. A video posted to a family member’s social media account shows him reading his acceptance letter from Utah State University for a prestigious academic scholarship. But he only attended for one semester, according to the Utah Board of Higher Education. At the time of the shooting, he was a third-year engineering apprentice at Dixie Technical College.
According to the Washington County Clerk, although Robinson’s parents are registered Republicans, he is not affiliated with either party and has not voted in the last two elections.
What investigators conclude about Robinson’s motivations may have far-reaching consequences beyond his own criminal case. In the aftermath of the killing, many Republicans and conservative commentators called for a sweeping crackdown on leftwing groups—assuming that the perpetrator would likely be someone from the opposite side of the political spectrum as Kirk.
If proven to be true, those calls will likely grow louder.
President Donald Trump and his officials have promised grave consequences for the “radical left,” which he claimed was “directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today.”
Read more: ‘This Is War’: Trump and Others on Right Call for Crackdown on Left After Charlie Kirk’s Murder
“My Administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country,” he said.
This is a developing story.
