After a 33-hour manhunt, authorities apprehended 22-year-old Tyler Robinson in the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. The arrest came on the heels of the suspect’s dad recognizing his son in surveillance footage.
While Robinson is not cooperating with authorities, family members and friends – including his transgender roommate with whom he was in a romantic relationship – are currently working with them. And Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the alleged assassin was “deeply indoctrinated in leftist ideology.”
But there are still far more questions than answers when it comes to the orchestration of the murder and how the suspect was able to pull off the assassination. On Monday’s show, Megyn was joined by FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino to discuss inside details of the investigation and what was happening on the ground in Utah before and after Robinson’s arrest.
The Security Lapse
The security plan for the event, which was the first stop of Kirk’s fall “American Comeback Tour” of college campuses around the country, has come under scrutiny in the wake of the shooting. The gunman opened fire from an unsecured rooftop, not unlike what transpired when Donald Trump was shot at his Butler, Pennsylvania, rally last summer.
While Bongino said he wasn’t going to “Monday morning quarterback” the situation, he said he had attended past Turning Point USA events and was impressed by the level of security. He does believe this latest tragedy will, however, change protocols moving forward.
“Why, in this case, was the roof uncovered? I can’t say,” Bongino said. “I think in the future at political events, regardless of who is speaking… there is going to be a significant change in security posture.”
Finding the Killer
There has been some criticism of how the FBI and law enforcement have handled this case from people on both sides of the aisle, particularly as it related to releasing the photos and video footage of the suspect.
Bongino said the American people “have a right to question everything” given that the bureau is a taxpayer-funded operation, but he defended the strategy. “Nothing we did was by accident… When we held that press conference [Thursday] night, the reason we had the governor and everyone put out that video is we wanted to anchor the new photos we had released and were going to put out in front of a national primetime audience,” he explained. “We wanted to anchor it to the video so you understood why we were looking for this particular suspect.”
He said they chose to use the media “as a friend in this investigation,” which is why they felt it was important to re-release enhanced versions of the initial photos. “It was just a short time after, thankfully, due to the work of all the partners involved in this, there were members of the suspect circle that recognized him… and he went and turned himself in,” Bongino noted.
The Firearm
FBI Director Kash Patel revealed Monday that DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle believed to have been used in Kirk’s assassination matched that of the 22 year old accused in the killing.
Bongino declined to comment on whether the firearm, which was previously identified as a Mauser model 98 bolt-action rifle with a scope mounted on it, was obtained legally. “I don’t want to say right now how he acquired the gun, but… there was some significant concerns expressed by the suspect in the case about the gun and retrieving the gun,” he said in reference to text messages reportedly sent by Robinson to his roommate after the murder.
Patel also confirmed there was DNA found on a screwdriver left on the roof of the UVU building that matched the suspect. Many have wondered if Robinson could have used the tool to disassemble the rifle before jumping from the roof because it is not currently clear how it got from the crime scene to the wooded area nearby where it was discovered by authorities.
Bongino said the FBI has some theories as to what happened to the weapon, though he admitted the surveillance footage from the nearby parking lot does not reveal much. “The camera is quite far away. It is not the best camera to see exactly what happened to the gun,” he noted. “However, we have some working theories, and one of them is that he drops the firearm fully assembled onto the ground and then retrieves it.”
The Ongoing Investigation
Robinson is in state custody at the moment and is expected to be formally charged during a court hearing on Tuesday. In the meantime, Bongino confirmed the suspect is on suicide watch and said that is “obviously going to remain a concern” going forward.
The investigation, meanwhile, remains ongoing. “As of this point… we have a good number of people, including the romantic partner, who have been cooperating and continue to,” Bongino said. “That could change, of course. We hope it doesn’t. It is very beneficial to have these folks cooperating.”
With reports continuing to swirl – including one from The Washington Free Beacon about social media accounts that appeared to have advanced knowledge of the assassination plot – about who knew what and when, Bongino left the door open for additional arrests in the future.
“I want to assure the audience… we are not done. Anyone under the assumption out there that this is the end of the investigation is categorically wrong. It is not even the end of the beginning of the investigation,” he emphasized. “There are thousands of leads that have come in… Some of them did not pan out; some of them won’t pan out; but some of them may. We are not done at all looking into any possible support or aiding and abetting in the case.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Bongino by tuning in to episode 1,149 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.