Charlie Kirk suspect ‘confessed to his father’ who helped turn him in

The suspect in the killing of US conservative activist Charlie Kirk was arrested after confessing to his father, who helped turn him in, authorities announced.

Tyler Robinson, 22, was taken into custody at 10pm local time on Thursday following a 33-hour manhunt.

“We got him,” the Utah Governor Spencer Cox told reporters.

“On the evening of 11 September, a family member of Tyler Robinson reached out to a family friend, who contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had confessed to them or implied that he had committed” the shooting.

The family member is reported to have been his father, according to law enforcement officials speaking to CBS news, who had recognised him from photos released during the manhunt.

During his interview with Fox News earlier, US President Donald Trump appeared to confirm this, saying the suspect was turned in by “someone very close”.

Trump said that the person who recognised the suspect went to “the father” who then “convinced the son”.

Two law enforcement sources told CBS that Robinson had confessed to his father, who had then urged him to turn himself in.

Robinson admitted to his father that he was the person in the photos, CBS‘s sources said.

Robinson’s father encouraged his son to hand himself in, but Robinson said he would rather take his own life.

The father reached out to a family friend, reported to be a church minister, and the pair tried to calm Robinson down.

The pastor then contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with the information.

The father then called a youth pastor, who then the US Marshals, CNN reports citing law enforcement officials.

Criminal charges are expected to be filed on Tuesday.

Robinson is due to be charged with aggravated murder, obstruction of justice and felony discharge of a firearm, CBS reports.

Robinson was a third-year student in an electrical apprenticeship programme at Dixie Technical College in south-west Utah, where he lived, a spokesperson for Utah Valley University (UVU) told the BBC.

He did not attend Utah Valley University, where the shooting took place.

Cox told a press conference today that authorities do not have information that would lead to further arrests but that “the investigation is ongoing”.

Kirk, 31 a right-wing firebrand and close ally of Donald Trump, was speaking to a crowd as part of his political rally tour when he was struck in the neck by a bullet.

The father of two’s murder has prompted an outpouring of grief and outrage from American conservatives and fuelled fears of further political violence.

The shooter fired one shot from the rooftop, according to authorities. Video showed the person then walking through the grass and across the street before disappearing.

“I can tell you this was a targeted event,” said Robert Bohls, the senior FBI agent in Salt Lake City.

No motive for the killing has been established, investigators said.

But Cox, the Utah governor, said the evidence included engravings on bullet casings recovered from the high-powered rifle believed to have been used in the attack, including one that said: “Hey, fascist! Catch!”

Trump told reporters he planned to attend Kirk’s funeral.