ABC News reporter Matt Gutman said on Tuesday that the text messages between Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin and his transgender boyfriend were “touching.”
Utah County Attorney Jeffrey Gray announced the charges against the assassin, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, and outlined several pieces of crucial evidence against the suspect, including his text messages with his trans-identifying boyfriend, Lance Twiggs. Following the announcement, Gutman appeared to be deeply touched by the text messages that showed Robinson telling Twiggs that he wanted to protect him.
“I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a press conference which we’ve read text messages that are a) so fulsome, so robust, so apparently, allegedly self-incriminating and yet on the other hand so touching,” Gutman said. “With the suspect reaching out to his roommate, who is allegedly his boyfriend, who we understand identified as male at birth and now identifies as female. And the terminology he used, he was trying to protect him. He kept calling him ‘my love,’ ‘my reason for doing this is to protect you.’ But also asking him to delete the messages and not speak to law enforcement.”
“So there’s this heartbreaking duality that we’re seeing very tragically playing out here,” Gutman continued.
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Authorities obtained text messages in which Robinson confessed to Twiggs that he committed the assassination and planned to turn himself in. When Triggs asked why Robinson committed the murder, the alleged assassin responded that he “had enough of [Kirk’s] hatred” and that “some hate can’t be negotiated.”
After he told Twiggs of his plan to turn himself in, Robinson added, “You are all I worry about, love.”
The alleged assassin also confessed to friends in a Discord chat just before he turned himself in, The Washington Post reported on Monday.
Prosecutors charged Robinson with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, obstruction of justice, witness tampering and committing a violent offense in the presence of a child.
Robinson’s mother informed authorities that her son “had become more political” in recent years, particularly becoming “more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.”
Officials said that Robinson targeted Kirk based on “political expression” and that the political targeting is an “aggravating factor” that could lead to increased penalties, Gray told reporters. While a two-day manhunt ensued, Robinson’s parents confronted him after seeing security footage photographs of him on the news, prompting Robinson to confess to the murder.
Robinson told his parents that he killed Kirk because “there is too much evil and the guy spreads too much hate.” His father then called a youth pastor on Friday, who then reported the murder to authorities.
Many notable figures attempted to convince the public that Robinson was a conservative Christian based on his family background. Republican Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and investigators almost immediately debunked those notions by revealing that Robinson had become “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”
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