There is a peculiar kind of crime that unsettles those of us who have spent a lifetime studying human behavior: one where the offense is so awful that it demands explanation, yet the motivation of the criminal remains a mystery.
The prosecution of Tyler Robinson for the alleged killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk seems to present that kind of disquieting case.
A Utah District judge decided on Tuesday to allow the murder trial to move forward. Robinson, 23, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he may face the death penalty. But even if a jury determines that Robinson is guilty, we may never truly know why he may have done it.
Within hours of Robinson’s arrest nearly two days after Kirk was killed, on September 10 on the campus of Utah Valley University, the spin machine kicked into gear. Commentators on both sides of the political spectrum rushed to fit him into narratives that served their preferred conclusion.
On the Right, some suggested that he was a woke assassin – a poster child for progressive radicalism. On Left, TV host Jimmy Kimmel claimed the ‘MAGA gang’ was ‘desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them.’ Everyone spoke too soon.
Here is the uncomfortable truth: the evidence gathered so far doesn’t support either tidy political narrative.
It suggests something far stranger and, potentially, more disturbing.
Voter registration records showed that Robinson was unaffiliated with either the Republican or Democratic party and never cast a ballot. His family describes him as someone with little interest in politics. He left no manifesto, no trail of ideological posts, no history of involvement with any movement, left, right or center.
The prosecution of Tyler Robinson for the alleged killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk seems to present that kind of disquieting case
If a jury determines that Robinson is guilty, we may never truly know why he may have done it
There is a peculiar kind of crime that unsettles those of us who have spent a lifetime studying human behavior: one where the offense is so awful that it demands explanation, yet the motivation of the criminal remains a mystery
If Kirk’s killing was a political assassination, in the traditional sense, an act meant to advance a cause, it is the strangest one that I have encountered, because the alleged shooter showed almost none of the hallmarks we’d expect. Yet the details of the act itself indicate that the killing also meant something specific and personal to the killer.
Engravings found on bullet casings in a rifle near the killing and believed by investigators to have been used in the murder, read less like political slogans and more like the inside jokes of online gaming culture – references meant for an audience of like-minded strangers, not a manifesto.
‘Up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrow symbols,’ was allegedly carved into one casing. That sequence of symbols appears to be a reference to the moves a gamer does on a controller to release bombs in a particular video game.
‘Notices bulges OwO what’s this?’ was another reported phrase found on the casings. It has connections to online roleplaying.
Another, ‘Hey fascist! Catch!’ does have a more straightforward political meaning, as a rallying cry for Leftists.
Stranger still, according to Robinson’s romantic partner Lance Twiggs, Robinson never once spoke of Kirk. Never expressed hatred for him. Never signaled that Kirk was even on his radar.
That is the contradiction at the heart of this case: bullet casings that seem to say, ‘I, specifically, hate you,’ fired by a suspect who may have never have previously spoken his victim’s name.
A Utah District judge decided on Tuesday to allow the murder trial to move forward. Robinson, 23, has pleaded not guilty
Engravings found on bullet casings in a rifle near the killing and believed by investigators to have been used in the murder, read less like political slogans and more like the inside jokes of online gaming culture
My own read, and one shared, I believe, by investigators working on the case, leans toward something more personal than political.
Kirk was a prominent critic of the transgender movement and Robinson was reportedly in a relationship with a transgender partner.
For Robinson, Kirk’s rhetoric may not have registered as abstract political commentary at all, it may have felt to him (I write this without assigning any value to his potential feelings) like a direct and ongoing verbal assault. If that was the case, then, to me, Robinson’s alleged murder of Kirk seems more like an act of personal grievance than political assassination.
Many extremism researchers who I speak to lean toward a different but related explanation: that Kirk’s killing was less about ideology and more about performance – a desperate, warped bid for notoriety played out for an online audience that speaks in memes and codes rather than political slogans. Isolated young men, cut off from real community, sometimes reach for infamy in ways that others would reach for meaning. And a famous target guarantees an audience for their performance.
The absence of evidence of Robinson’s political stimulus isn’t a gap waiting to be filled with speculation. For many researchers, it’s the answer itself – evidence that this crime may not have been the ideological act that so many rushed to declare it.
Within hours of Robinson’s arrest nearly two days after Kirk was killed, on September 10 on the campus of Utah Valley University, the spin machine kicked into gear
According to Robinson’s romantic partner Lance Twiggs (above), Robinson never once spoke of Kirk. Never expressed hatred for him
In many ways, the instinct to jump to conclusions about Robinson’s alleged motivation is an understandable one. In the face of tragedy, identifying killers as symbols of something larger is psychologically comforting because the threats then become concrete and identifiable. Indeed, how does a society confront the challenge of isolated young men who snap for reasons that can’t be foreseen or predicted?
But still, it is critical to understand the motivations of killers so that they can be stopped before they act. To chalk up Kirk’s killing to the result of raging partisanship would be to miss an opportunity to pursue greater public safety.
Until the courts and the evidence say otherwise, we owe it to everyone involved, the victim’s family, the accused and the public, to resist the urge to force this tragedy into a story that fits self-serving beliefs rather than the facts.
Charlie Kirk’s loved ones deserve to know the truth.
And, right now, that truth is this: We don’t yet know why he was killed.
Pretending otherwise does a disservice to anyone searching for real answers.
