A former high school friend of Tyler Robinson’s provided more details on his personal life and political views, hours after the 22-year-old was arrested and charged with the murder of Charlie Kirk.
On Wednesday afternoon, Kirk was assassinated while hosting a “Prove Me Wrong” debate at Utah Valley University. Kirk was shot in the neck by someone positioned on the rooftop of a nearby building on the university’s campus.
President Donald Trump announced Charlie Kirk’s death in a statement posted on Truth Social at 4:40 p.m. EST on Wednesday. The 31-year-old Kirk was survived by his wife, Erika, and two young children.
On Friday morning, Trump and authorities announced that they had arrested the suspect in Kirk’s murder, later identified as Tyler Robinson. Tyler is a native of Washington, Utah, and agreed to turn himself in at the advice of his father.
Charlie Kirk was a prominent conservative political activist and commentator who had over 5 million X/Twitter followers and racked up over one billion viewers on his YouTube channel.
Former Friend Of Charlie Kirk Murder Suspect Speaks Out
The former friend told Betts that Robinson was the only part of his family who was “leftist”, noting that the rest were “very hard Republican.” They added that around his sophomore year, Robinson was always “ranting and arguing about” his family.
“I knew he (Robinson) had strong political views, but I never thought it would even go near that far,” the former friend told Betts.
The friend added that they stopped talking to Robinson years ago and that they “began to drift apart” near the conclusion of high school.
After his arrest, it was reported that Tyler Robinson had a 4.0 high school GPA and posted a score of 34 on the ACT, placing him in the 99 percentile.
