家长要关心的是如何让小孩不受网络上极端分子的影响，偏执到理念不同就灭掉对方。

Suspect Was Once Promising Student 

By Zusha Elinson , Scott Calvert, Caitlin Ostroff and Harriet Torry

WASHINGTON, Utah—Tyler Robinson was the pride of his Utah family. He was a 4.0 high--school student who won a prestigious college scholarship, according to social-media posts.

“His options are endless,” his mother wrote on Facebook.

Four years later, authorities said the 22-year-old Robinson used an old bolt-action rifle to fire a single shot that killed Charlie Kirk while the conservative activist spoke Wednesday at Utah Valley University. He allegedly had ammunition etched with phrases borrowed from internet and gaming culture like “Hey, fascist! Catch!” and “If you read this, you are gay, lmao.”

Authorities, friends and even his own family were trying to understand how Robinson went from a top student raised by parents who were registered Republicans in a Mormon stronghold in southwest Utah to a suspected assassin who authorities said targeted one of the country’s most popular conservative youth leaders. Robinson was in the past registered as nonpartisan.

Clinton Robinson, Tyler’s uncle, said that after authorities released surveillance photos of the shooting suspect, he showed an image to Tyler’s father, Matt Robinson. “I thought it looked like Tyler,” Clinton Robinson wrote in a text exchange Friday morning with a Wall Street Journal reporter. “Sounds like it was. My day just went to s—.”

“I have no idea why he did this,” he wrote.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said one of Tyler Robinson’s relatives told investigators Tyler had become more political in recent years. The family member said at a recent dinner, Robinson and a second relative discussed Kirk’s coming outdoor event on the Utah Valley campus in Orem.

“They talked about why they didn’t like him and the viewpoints that he had,” Cox, a Republican, said at a news briefing Friday.

“It’s very clear to us and to the investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology,” Cox added in an interview with the Journal.

Robinson was from the small city of Washington, nestled in southwest Utah between red-rock canyons and snow-capped mountains.

Striking national parks like Zion and Bryce Canyon aren’t far.

Like many boys in this area, Robinson grew up hunting and was well-versed in the use of firearms, according to law-enforcement officials. Photos shared on social media show the family shooting rifles.

State records show his parents own a custom-countertop business, and his mother is a licensed clinical social worker. The family lives on a suburban street that a neighbor described as quiet with many Mormon Church-going households.

Robinson, who has two brothers, was a stellar student, according to his mother’s posts on her Facebook account. He had a perfect GPA and scored a 34 out of a possible 36 on his ACT.

“Just a sweet, respectful, skinny teenager,” according to a neighbor, Kristin Schwiermann.

Robinson’s mother hoped he would stay close for college, and in the fall of 2021, she posted pictures of him in his dorm room at Utah State, a five-hour drive north of the family home in Washington. He arrived with a scholarship worth $32,000 over four years.

But he wasn’t there long. Utah State said he attended the school for just one semester.

One thing is apparent about Robinson: He lived much of life on the internet. By age 15 he had developed enough of an online presence that he dressed up as “some guy from a meme” for Halloween, according to his mother. Writings on the bullet casings found by police appeared to reference various memes and online culture.

One unfired casing was inscribed with lyrics from “Bella Ciao,” an Italian song dedicated to those who fought against fascism during World War II that has been revived on TikTok.

Kirk, 31, played a prominent role in President Trump’s outreach to young voters during the 2024 election. A popular podcast host, he spoke on college campuses nationwide and became wellknown for sparring with students in public settings. Videos of his debates with liberal-minded students drew millions of views online.

At Utah Valley University on Wednesday, Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings before a huge audience when he was struck in the neck by a single bullet fired by a shooter believed to be perched on a building some 200 yards away.

Robinson has been booked into the Utah County Jail. Trump said Friday that he would like to see the suspect in custody get the death penalty if found guilty.

 

 

 

editor's opinion

 

A Politician Rises to the Occasion 

A22-year-old man is now in custody in Utah, as the country weathers the aftershocks of the public murder of CharlieKirk, the young political leader and father. A solace is that the justice system is moving swiftly, and at least some politicians in America have decided to meet the raw moment with wise counsel.

Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox said in a press conference Friday announcing the arrest of suspect Tyler Robinson that a casing found by law enforcement was engraved with the phrase: “Hey fascist! Catch!” Another: “If you read this, you are gay LMAO.” We’ll learn more in the coming days, but this looks like another young man full of rage and unhinged from reality, with help from the internet.

Yet perhaps the most important part of the press conference was Mr. Cox’s reflection on the country’s condition after “an attack on the American experiment.” To “my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage,” he said. “It feels like rage is the only option.”

But “your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different from what we are suffering through right now, not by pretending differences don’t matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.”

Then: “I think we need more moral clarity right now. I hear all the time that words are violence. Words are not violence. Violence is violence. And there is one person responsible for what happened here. And that person is now in custody and will be charged soon, and will be held accountable.”

This is important wisdom for young Americans whose political formation will now include this assassination, and Mr. Cox performed far better than most of his colleagues in positions of political leadership. “These people are full of s—” is the level of statesmanship America now expects from Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, but the failures are bipartisan. “Democrats owned what happened today,” said South Carolina GOP Rep. Nancy Mace.

The left hasn’t reckoned with what it unleashed when it declared that words are equivalent to violence, which some unstable people hear as an open call to return fire. Yet what the country needs at this moment is leaders who understand that they represent everyone once they are elected, not merely a political faction. This is what the country could also use from President Trump, rather than vows to punish his opponents.

Mr. Cox told Americans to “ log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community,” while calling social media “a cancer.” Don’t underestimate the political salience of this message to voters who all know someone whose mental stability has deteriorated after hours spent marinating in online rage.

“History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country,” Mr. Cox said, “but every single one of us gets to choose right now if this is a turning point for us.” It has been a bleak week for the greatest free society in history. But Mr. Cox is right to tell Americans that their personal conduct can be a starting point toward something different.