They Got Him

The man who assassinated Charlie Kirk has been found and arrested as we read in a report from the Associated Press News:

The man accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk was being held Friday at the Utah County Jail. A court affidavit says Tyler Robinson, 22, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily harm, and obstruction of justice charges. A judge ordered that he be held without bail. Formal charges are expected to be released early next week.

Although the authorities received thousands of tips, Robinson was convinced to turn himself in by his father and a youth pastor:

Robinson had indicated to a family friend afterwards that he was responsible, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. He also cited as key pieces of evidence engravings on bullets found in a rifle believed to have been used in the attack, as well as chatting app messages attributed to the accused shooter that a roommate shared with law enforcement after the shooting.

The article gives more information about the arrest:

Here’s what we know so far:

  • The suspect: Officials have identified Robinson as the suspect in Kirk’s assassination. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said he is believed to have acted alone and that the investigation is ongoing. The governor would not say if Robinson is cooperating with authorities.
  • The arrest: Robinson’s arrest from Thursday night was disclosed by President Trump on Friday morning. Robinson had recently become “more political” and had indicated to a family friend afterwards that he was responsible, said Utah Gov. Spencer Cox. The suspect’s father saw surveillance photos and worked with a pastor to encourage the surrender in Kirk’s killing, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
  • Utah Gov. Spencer Cox’s plea: Long an advocate for civility, the Republican politician made an impassioned plea for Americans to use the horror of Kirk’s assassination as an inflection point to turn the country away from political violence and division. Speaking specifically to young Americans, he said, “Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now.”

He Didn’t Act Alone

The AP report says that Robinson was acting alone, but there are reports that he was working with like-minded people he communicated with on Discord, a popular social media platform. Here is an article from Deseret News on the platform and how Robinson may have used it in the planning of the assassination of Kirk:

The Utah man being held in the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk used the social media platform Discord to send messages about the rifle and engraved bullets, authorities said at a news conference this morning.

Many are wanting to know just who Robinson was colluding with and will there be any charges made for those accomplices. Although not mentioned as helping in the shooting, his roommate aided in finding the weapon:

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said that Tyler Robinson’s roommate, who was not identified, showed investigators messages that mentioned the rifle and how it was left under brush, wrapped in a towel. Authorities said Thursday that a Mauser .30-caliber, bolt-action rifle had been found in the woods, along with a spent cartridge. Three other rounds remained in the magazine.

Getting back to the Discord angle we learn this:

While popular among young Americans, Discord is probably not as known to older generations.

Launched in 2015, it was initially an app used for chatting about video games. It later expanded to include calling and video chats, and to allow users to show the video games they were playing and eventually allow people to play games within the platform.

It very popular:

According to the nonprofit Entertainment Software Rating Board, which helps parents decide what games and apps are suitable for their family, more than 200 million people use Discord every month.

The president of the rating board tells us more:

“While people of all ages use Discord, it has become a key part of many kids’ social lives,” ESRB president Patricia Vance wrote in a blog post earlier this year.

Vance noted that while the free platform is primarily used by gamers, “Users now leverage Discord for all manner of personal and professional virtual gatherings, including hosting book clubs, knitting groups, sewing circles, and more.”

Discord, like many popular social media sites run rather innocently for the most part. However there are troubling recent uses:

But these benign uses have been overshadowed in recent years by more ominous ones. Discord offers both private and public servers, allowing users to determine their own degree of privacy.

In 2022, Payton Gendron, the man indicted in the mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that killed 10 people, used an invitation-only Discord server to detail his plans.

Discord cooperated with law enforcement and wants to keep things like that from happening again, a pledge that apparently isn’t working:

In a statement after the shooting, Discord disclosed Gendron’s activities on the platform and pledged to work to combat hate, violence and extremism.

“We understand hateful ideologies and proponents of organized violence will persist online and offline, and we acknowledge that we must do more to remove hate and violent extremism from Discord. We created Discord to be a place for people to find belonging, and hate and violence are in direct opposition to our mission. We take our commitment to these principles seriously and will continue to invest in and deploy resources,” the statement said.

More Incidents

Another recent shooting found that Discord was used in its planning:

Other mass shootings that were discussed on Discord include one last year at Apalachee High School in Georgia. Per reporting by The Washington Post, authorities believed the teen charged in that shooting, Colt Gray, used an email address that was linked to a chat discussing the desire to commit a mass shooting.

Another shooting is connected to the platform:

NBC News reported that Discord messages about violence were also connected to Dylan Butler, who took his own life after a school shooting in Iowa last year.

The young person who made an assassination attempt on US President Donald Trump in July of 2024 was also using Discord so the platform doesn’t appear to be able to handle this terrible trend. And now we know that Robinson used it at least to get help in hiding the weapon used:

While Discord users can be anonymous, at Friday’s news conference, Cox said that the messages shown by Tyler Robinson’s roommate were from an account with the name “Tyler.”

This will all play out as it should, at least I pray it will. As we lift up the Kirk family as his body was flown to his home state of Arizona, we also need to pray for how we can root out the next plan to do harm while also protecting American’s free speech rights. It can be done and from what we’ve seen in recent times it must be done. Perhaps Holy Spirit can help reveal the truth to those who are on these platforms so preventive actions can be taken. Trust me when I say this, such divine interventions have happened throughout history and can happen again. I’d rather not hear about plans that were averted than read about them after the fact.