Straight up psychopath.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/13/us/kirk-killing-suspect-online-chat.html?unlocked_article_code=1.l08.989d.B7u0j3LaVgAY&smid=url-share
Tagging Mr. Robinson’s username on Discord, a messaging platform, the acquaintance attached the images and wrote “wya” — where you at? — with a skull emoji, suggesting that Mr. Robinson, 22, looked like the man being sought.
Mr. Robinson replied within a minute. His “doppelganger,” he wrote, was trying to “get me in trouble.”
“Tyler killed Charlie!!!!” another user wrote, apparently in jest.
That was on Thursday afternoon, around 1 p.m. local time. It was not until later that night, nearly 34 hours after the shooting, that Mr. Robinson was arrested on suspicion of carrying out the assassination of Mr. Kirk, 31, a conservative pundit whose killing has inflamed the political world.
After Mr. Robinson joked that the gunman was his look-alike, another user suggested that the group could turn Mr. Robinson in and get the $100,000 reward that the F.B.I. was offering.
“Only if I get a cut,” Mr. Robinson responded.
Someone posted, “Whatever you do, don’t go to a mcdonalds anytime soon,” a reference to the arrest of Luigi Mangione, who was found at a McDonald’s restaurant and charged with the killing of a health insurance chief executive in Manhattan.
Mr. Robinson agreed and offered a supposed joke of his own, writing “better also get rid of this manifesto and exact copy rifle I have lying around.”
When another user suggested that the killing of Mr. Kirk would lead President Trump to send the National Guard to Utah, the suspect replied, “in a red state??? nah CLEARLY the shooter was from california.”
Around that time, several news outlets reported that ammunition found near a rifle at the scene included engravings referencing “transgender ideology.” The truth, ultimately, was that the engravings included the phrase “hey fascist! CATCH!” as well as lyrics from an antifascist Italian folk song and a reference to a sexual meme about a “bulge.”
But at the time, before the exact phrasing of the engravings was publicly known, the suspect sent messages that suggested he was closely following the news.
“I heard the ammo had somethin about trans stuff on it, but they aren’t releasing photos or exact quotes,” he wrote. He added: “and also the claim wasn’t backed by the official fbi, just some dude in the briefing room.”
A few minutes later, he joked: “I’m actually Charlie Kirk, wanted to get outta politics so I faked my death, now I can live out my dream life in kansas.”
Mr. Robinson’s messages on Discord appeared next to his avatar, which was from a Garfield comic and depicted the confused face of Garfield’s owner, Jon Arbuckle.
Following the suspect’s arrest on Thursday night, members of the group chat on Discord struggled to believe that he was actually being accused of the crime. “Our governor wants to give him the death penalty dude,” one wrote.
Another said: “I truly cannot distinguish if this is for real.”