The first inkling that Tyler Robinson was turning into a far-left political assassin came at a family dinner in a quiet suburban street in the shadow of a Mormon church.
He was eating with his Republican parents Matt, 48, who owns a construction company, and Amber, 44, who works for a firm helping disabled people.
Robinson’s gray Dodge Challenger was in the drive outside their $635,000 six-bedroom ranch-style detached home in a leafy suburb of Washington, a town of 28,000 people in southwest Utah.
The gunman had a middle class upbringing there, along with his two younger brothers, in a 3,267sq ft house with wooden floors, a covered patio and jetted tub in the bathroom.
But that night, a relative who was visiting noticed that 22-year-old Robinson seemed to have become what they described as ‘more political’. In truth, secretly, he had become dangerously radicalized.
He told that relative that Charlie Kirk was coming to Utah Valley University, and talked about why he didn’t like him and the viewpoints he had. Kirk, Robinson told the relative, was ‘full of hate, and spreading hate.’
It was Robinson’s first, and perhaps his sloppiest, mistake as he secretly hatched a chilling plot to murder the conservative activist, and was one of many clues he left that allowed the FBI to snare him within 33 hours.
Amid the initial pandemonium after Kirk was shot, experts had speculated that the high-profile activist was the victim of a professional hit, and that the marksman firing from distance must have been trained, even that he could be a former military sniper.
However, as the litany of mistakes the gunman left in is wake now show, he turned out to be a disgruntled gamer who was always destined to be caught.
Mugshots of Tyler Robinson released by the Utah Governor’s Office
Utah police stand outside a residence in Washington, Utah, associated with Tyler Robinson,
The errors Robinson made included being repeatedly caught on surveillance cameras, which suggested he failed to carry out much reconnaissance before the attack.
He also used his own car to drive to the scene, and wore easily recognizable clothes that he didn’t get rid of later, including a pair of Converse trainers that were identifiable in photographs previously posted on his mother’s Facebook account.
In addition, he dumped the murder weapon close to the scene where it could be quickly found, then sent messages on the Discord app to his roommate attempting to involve him in a cover-up.
The haphazard trail left by the killer began at 8.29am on Wednesday, September 10 when Robinson arrived on the UVU campus in the gray Dodge Challenger.
He was wearing a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black hat with white logo, and the light Converse shoes.
At 11.52am he was captured on a surveillance camera going up a stairwell toward the roof of the Losee Center building a few hundred yards from where Kirk would be speaking in the open air.
Kirk appeared at 12.09am and a few people in the crowd saw a figure moving across the roof of the Losee Center, but assumed it was police activity.
Then, at 12.23pm a single shot rang out from the south-east edge of the roof, hitting and killing Kirk.
Amid the ensuing chaos the gunman was caught on camera running across the rooftop toward the north side, and jumped down on to the grass.
As he did so he left a footprint from his Converse shoe.
An aerial view of the gunman’s escape rote
Tyler Robinson was apprehended after a 33-hour FBI manhunt
He started running across the open grass, slowing to a walk as a car dove by, then crossed Campus Drive, a two-lane road, heading north-east into a small area of woodland.
It was here that he made another mistake, dumping his high-powered Mauser bolt-action rifle, a kind commonly used by marksmen and hunters, in a bush in a small wooded area close to the scene where it could easily be found.
Robinson wrapped the rifle in a black towel, which suggested he may have gone to the area before Kirk began speaking to place the towel there in advance.
Surveillance cameras did not show him with the towel prior to the shooting, or while jumping off the Losee Center roof.
After dumping the rifle he fled the woodland area through the site of a house where construction was going on, and may have hidden briefly inside the property.
Robinson then carried on up a slope, passing two mechanical diggers and going up two flights of newly-built concrete stairs.
He was captured on another surveillance camera passing a house before emerging onto the public road.
A post referencing what Tyler Robinson had inscribed on one of his cartridge casings before the Charlie Kirk shooting
He then incriminated himself further by using his phone to message his roommate on Discord, an app popular with gamers .
Robinson asked the roommate to retrieve the rifle from the woods, explaining he had left it in a bush wrapped in a towel.
The messages were believed to include an image of the precise location.
He also went into detail about the scope and rifle being unique, and told the roommate he had changed outfits.
Where Robinson went next, and where he spent the night, is unclear but the manhunt intensified.
The surveillance videos meant police were able to follow his path into the wooded area and they found the rifle, along with cartridge casings that had been engraved with disturbing messages.
One referenced the WWII Italian anti-fascist song Bella Ciao and said ‘Oh, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao, Bella Ciao Ciao Ciao.’
Another appeared to carry a reference to video game Helldivers 2, and read: ‘Hey Fascists, Catch!’
On the bullet was an up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol and three down arrow symbols – referencing a stratagem code used in the game to strike opponents with ‘The Eagle 500kg bomb.’
The FBI brought in planes which carried back evidence for analysis at its laboratory in Quantico, Virginia.
Charlie Kirk, who founded conservative action group Turning Point USA, with President Trump
The gunman shot from 200 yards away
At 10am on Thursday, September 11, the first surveillance images of the suspect were released publicly by the FBI.
Less than an hour later, a $100,000 reward was issued.
At 8pm more video and images were released.
Matt Robinson saw them and faced the harrowing realization that his son was the prime suspect.
The details of what happened next remain unclear but it is known that he worked with a pastor to encourage his son to surrender, and the family contacted law enforcement.
Charlie Kirk with his wife Erika and one of their two children
The family home is 260 miles south-west of where the murder took place and it was known if Robinson returned there, or went on the run.
But at 10pm on Thursday, 33 hours after the shooting, he walked into a sheriff’s office in south-west Utah wearing the same clothes he had worn for the shooting.
According to police he was compliant as he was arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder.
They said his family had done a ‘great job’ of persuading him to turn himself in.
Meanwhile, the FBI visited his roommate who showed them the messages that had been sent on Discord after the shooting.
The following morning President Donald Trump announced: ‘I think with a high degree of certainty, we have him. Essentially, someone that was very close to him turned him in.’
