NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
OREM, Utah — Tyler Robinson’s mother told investigators she had watched her son change dramatically in the year leading up to the Utah college shooting of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Once a college scholarship recipient with a promising future, Robinson had “become more political,” leaning left and supporting “pro-gay and trans rights,” his mother said, according to court documents.
She also recounted heated arguments between Robinson and his father, who held sharply different views and regularly sparred over their competing ideologies.
At one point, she told police, her son dismissed Kirk’s Utah Valley University (UVU) event as a “stupid” venue and claimed Kirk “spreads too much hate.”
CHARLIE KIRK’S ALLEGED ASSASSIN HELD ‘LEFTIST IDEOLOGY’ BUT MOTIVE STILL UNDER INVESTIGATION: UTAH GOVERNOR
Tyler Robinson poses for a photo in St. George, Utah in late 2022. Robinson is the prime suspect in the assassination of Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10, 2025. (Cher Houston Photography)
Prosecutors now argue that political hatred was at the core of Robinson’s alleged actions.
In court filings, they allege he intentionally targeted Kirk “because of his political expression” — and his parents recognized him from surveillance video after the shooting.
“Robinson’s father reported that when his wife showed him the surveillance image of the suspected shooter in the news, he agreed that it looked like their son,” prosecutors alleged in court filings.
His father confronted him and talked him into surrendering to authorities.
WHO IS TYLER ROBINSON? WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT CHARLIE KIRK’S SUSPECTED ASSASSIN
A gray Dodge Challenger parked in the driveway of Tyler Robinson’s family home in Washington, Utah, Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. Robinson reportedly drove a gray Dodge Challenger to UVU on the day he allegedly assassinated Charlie Kirk. (Derek Shook for Fox News Digital)
“As they discussed the situation, Robinson implied that he was the shooter and stated that he couldn’t go to jail and just wanted to end it,” prosecutors wrote. “When asked why he did it, Robinson explained there is too much evil and the guy [Charlie Kirk] spreads too much hate.”
Prosecutors charged Robinson Tuesday with aggravated murder in the killing of Kirk, along with multiple related offenses. He also faces two counts of obstruction of justice for concealing the rifle and discarding clothing, and two counts of witness tampering for urging his roommate to delete texts and stay silent.
Robinson was additionally charged with committing a violent offense in the presence of a child, and prosecutors have filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty.
FBI INVESTIGATING LEFTIST GROUPS FOR POSSIBLE TIES TO CHARLIE KIRK’S ASSASSINATION: SOURCE
Charlie Kirk (L) and his wife Erika Lane Frantzve (C) during the Turning Point USA Inaugural-Eve Ball at the Salamander Hotel on Jan. 19, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Samuel Corum/Getty Images)
The 22-year-old from southern Utah evolved from a top high school student to a scholarship recipient to an alleged killer.
Kirk, a 31-year-old father of two, was answering questions in the packed courtyard of UVU when a gunman shot him from a rooftop about 200 yards away, according to authorities and video taken at the scene. The conservative commentator died from the injury.
CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSINATION SUSPECT AWAITS CHARGES AS UTAH RESIDENTS DESCRIBE ALLEGED KILLER AS ‘VERY QUIET’
Tyler Robinson appears virtually in Utah court on Sept. 16, 2025, to face charges in the assassination of Charlie Kirk. (Utah State Courts)
Family photos, viewed by Fox News Digital, captured the Robinson family of five traveling together on vacations, from an Alaskan adventure in helmets and harnesses to a cruise and a trip to Universal Studios.
The suspected killer beamed in photos alongside his siblings, hugged his mom after graduating from high school in 2021 and appears to have enjoyed fishing with the family.
But authorities, citing interviews with his mother, said he had radicalized over the past year — after entering a relationship with a biological male roommate who is transitioning to female.
WHO IS TYLER ROBINSON? WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT CHARLIE KIRK’S SUSPECTED ASSASSIN
Charlie Kirk hands out hats before speaking at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah, Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025. (Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP)
In a series of text messages after the shooting, revealed Tuesday by Utah County District Attorney Jeff Gray, Robinson allegedly admitted, “I had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.”
He said he had planned the attack for “a bit over a week,” detailing to his lover how he discarded clothing and the rifle, and urged his partner to delete the messages and stay silent if questioned by police.
Read the court documents:
Robinson graduated from Pine View High School in 2021.
By that fall, he was shown moving into Utah State University (USU), with photos outside the Richard and Moonyeen Anderson Engineering Building.
In a statement to Fox News from USU, the public university said: “Utah State University confirms that Tyler Robinson, the suspect arrested in the killing of Charlie Kirk, briefly attended Utah State University for one semester in 2021.”
“We can also confirm that he was a pre-engineering major and took classes consistent with that major for his one semester,” the school added.
CHARLIE KIRK’S ALLEGED ASSASSIN TYLER ROBINSON FACES DEATH PENALTY AS CHARGES FORMALLY ANNOUNCED
One photo shows him posing in a dorm room there, wearing black-and-white Converse sneakers like the ones he allegedly wore for Kirk’s slaying. Just a few inches away, on his computer desk, are a gaming keyboard and headset.
He didn’t last long there, however, and Robinson more recently attended Dixie Technical College. He was a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program.
A split showing four newly-released photographs of the person of interest in Charlie Kirk’s assassination on Sept. 10, 2025 in Orem, Utah. (Utah Public Safety)
At the time of the murder, authorities say he was living with a “roommate,” identified by authorities as a romantic partner undergoing a transition from male to female, who is cooperating with investigators.
Prosecutors included a lengthy chain of text messages between the two in charging documents against Robinson, which allegedly show him discussing the case with his partner, confessing to the crime and expressing the fear that he wouldn’t be able to retrieve the suspected murder weapon because police had locked down the area.
UTAH PROSECUTORS PREPARE POTENTIAL DEATH PENALTY CASE AGAINST CHARLIE KIRK SUSPECT TYLER JAMES ROBINSON
Authorities said they recovered a Mauser .30-06 rifle wrapped in a towel in the woods near UVU.
What remains unclear is what Robinson did for a living and the details of his apparent radicalization.
WATCH: Bongino vows ‘transparency’ in FBI probe of Kirk’s assassination, says motive is ‘fairly obvious’
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino told “America’s Newsroom” Monday that investigators were looking into whether Robinson had any potential accomplices.
He alleged that Robinson had made threats against Kirk to acquaintances before the shooting, but his statements were still being investigated.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“It appears from the data we’ve accumulated that this ideology had infected him and had taken over,” Bongino said. “He was intent on making Charlie his target and people may have known in advance.”