Prosecutors to seek death penalty in murder case against Charlie Kirk's alleged killer

Update on Charlie Kirk shot investigating

The merchandise schooltime student suspected of assassinating right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk at a Utah university was due in court on Tuesday to face formal charges, appearing by video feed from jail for his first public appearance since the shooting.

Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of firing the single rifle shot from a rooftop sniper's nest that pierced Kirk's neck last Wednesday on the campus of Utah Valley University in Orem, about 65 kilometres south of Salt Lake City.

The killing sparked denunciations of political violence across the ideological spectrum but also unleashed a wave of partisan blame-casting and concerns that Kirk's murder might beget more bloodshed.

Authorities have offered no possible motive for the killing, though Kirk's wife and other supporters were quick to cast him as a martyr for their cause. Kirk, co-founder and head of the conservative student movement Turning Point USA and a key ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was speaking at an event attended by 3,000 people when he was gunned down. He died later at a hospital. He was 31.

The suspect, a third-year student of an electrical apprenticeship at a state technical college, initially escaped in the pandemonium following the shooting.

He was arrested on Thursday night at his parents' house, some 420 kilometres southwest of the crime scene, after relatives and a family friend alerted authorities that Robinson had implicated himself in the shooting, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

Robinson was booked into Utah County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder, a felony weapons offence and obstruction of justice, according to an affidavit filed by investigators.

Cox said the state would be inclined to seek the death penalty should Robinson be convicted, but that prosecutors would consider the wishes of Kirk's family before making that decision. The killing has unnerved Americans who have seen a spike in political violence in recent years, including two attempted assassinations of Trump last year and the assassination of a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota this summer, among many other high-profile examples.

Robinson was scheduled to appear via video feed from jail on Tuesday afternoon in Utah County Justice Court in Provo.

The Utah County district attorney planned to hold a news briefing to explain the charges a few hours before the hearing. Newly filed court documents accompanying the charges may contain additional information about evidence in the investigation.

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