The suspect accused of killing Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University “left evidence everywhere” despite what appears to be extensive planning for the attack, according to a former FBI agent who now teaches criminal justice at the school.
Tyler Robinson, 22, is accused of assassinating the 31-year-old Kirk by shooting him in the neck from a rooftop as the victim was speaking in front of thousands of people in the campus courtyard.
Greg Rogers spent decades as an undercover agent for the FBI and now teaches a class on serial killers and criminal psychology at UVU. He said the assassination would become a case study for current and future students.
“I’ll be discussing it a lot with my class because we go through a lot of cases where people are very savvy, and he’s not,” he said, referring to Robinson’s alleged actions. “From my perspective as an investigator…he was tragically effective, but it was incredibly sloppy work.”
It was “purely nonsensical” for the suspected gunman to try and stash his rifle in the woods and grab it later, as prosecutors allege, he said.
“You see in the videos that he’s got it down the legs of his pants, why didn’t he just walk to his car with the rifle and drive away?” he continued. “If you were a pro or had put in a requisite amount of planning, that rifle would be destroyed, or it would be at the bottom of a lake somewhere.”
SCRUTINY INTENSIFIES OVER SECURITY LAPSES SURROUNDING THE CHARLIE KIRK SHOOTING
Robinson allegedly drove more than 265 miles from the Orem crime scene back to his home in St. George, near the Nevada state line — most of it through rural Utah. He could’ve ditched the rifle anywhere along the way, Rogers said.
The suspect also appeared on surveillance video disguised in sunglasses and a baseball cap, Rogers noted.
“He was captured so quickly because he was caught on camera approaching the roof, and when you’re on camera like that, someone’s gonna recognize you, even though you’re wearing a baseball hat and glasses,” he said. “When you’re at a sporting event and you have on a cap and glasses, your friends recognize you. They walk up and say, ‘Hey, how you doing?'”
Prosecutors said at a news briefing last week that Robinson’s own parents recognized him and confronted him after seeing surveillance images released by the FBI. They also helped negotiate his surrender.
“He put a lot of pre-operation planning into this, but he failed miserably, and by that I mean he left evidence everywhere he was,” Rogers said.
Police found a footprint on the rooftop from where they allege Robinson fired the single shot that killed Kirk. They recovered DNA from the discarded rifle. They have the surveillance images. And they have multiple alleged confessions that Robinson allegedly made to friends and family.
TIMELINE OF CHARLIE KIRK’S ALLEGED ASSASSIN FROM CAMPUS SHOOTING TO SHERIFF’S OFFICE SURRENDER
In particular, Rogers pointed to an alleged admission that Robinson allegedly shared with a group of friends on Discord, a social media app for text, voice and video communications.
“I mean, how comfortable do you have to be with these people and believe that they’re so much on the same page that you are that you’re somehow OK writing that?” Rogers said. “You must firmly believe that they’re all going to agree with you. And not only are they going to agree with, they’re going to think that what you did was impressive.”
Discord spokespersons have said the company found no evidence that Robinson used the platform to plan or discuss the attack before the shooting.
In addition to working undercover infiltrating biker gangs, radical militias and White supremacist organizations, Rogers also served as a SWAT sniper in multiple FBI field offices and spent time as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Texas.
One of his major concerns now is the future safety of his students. Kirk has been among the highest-profile speakers at UVU in the seven years Rogers has taught there, he said, and notably the only one to hold a large-scale event outdoors.
“There’s gonna be an after-action report for this,” Rogers said. “And everybody, his security and the campus security, is gonna have a hard time explaining why there wasn’t a drone up in the air. It’s inexpensive. He’s in all black on a white roof. He’d stand out like a sore thumb.”
He said he expects future events to be held indoors with security checks similar to the school’s basketball games.
