I'm guessing Mormon, at least mildly conservative home, under the thumb of some religious restriction.
Family Member Alerted Officials to Suspect in Charlie Kirk Killing
The 22-year-old suspect, being held on suspicion of aggravated murder, indicated to a relative that he had shot Mr. Kirk, the right-wing activist, on a Utah campus, the authorities said.
Authorities believe the shooter acted alone. Here’s the latest.
A more than 30-hour manhunt for the gunman who shot and killed Charlie Kirk before a crowd of thousands ended late Thursday, more than 250 miles away, officials said, with a phone call from a family friend of the suspect who is now in custody.
Tyler Robinson, 22, is being held in the Utah County Jail on suspicion of aggravated murder and other felonies, according to court records. The authorities identified him Friday as the person that they believe shot Mr. Kirk, and said they believe he acted alone.
The announcement of an arrest capped an intense, multiagency manhunt that began with the grisly assassination of Mr. Kirk at Utah Valley University in Orem on Wednesday afternoon. It included two mistaken announcements by the authorities that they had a suspect in custody, only for those people to be released, before ending in Washington County, Utah.
Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah said in a news conference that a relative of the suspect had contacted a family friend after the shooting. That friend then contacted a sheriff’s office and told officers that the suspect had confessed, or suggested that he had committed the killing.
Through interviews with a relative and a roommate, investigators also learned that the suspect had criticized Mr. Kirk not long before the shooting, Mr. Cox said, and that he had sent messages about needing to “retrieve a rifle from a drop point.”
Here’s what else to know:
Bullet engravings: Investigators said they had found messages inscribed on unfired cartridges alongside a rifle in the woods near campus. The messages suggested familiarity with antifascist symbolism and the irreverent slang of internet memes and role-play communities. One of the casings had the words “Bella ciao,” an apparent reference to an Italian song adopted by the antifascist resistance during World War II. Read more ›
Trump comments: President Trump announced the arrest in an early-morning appearance on “Fox & Friends,” the Fox News television show, and said he had learned about it moments before coming on the air. His comments outpaced Utah officials, who shared more details at a news conference about two hours later. Mr. Trump also blamed the “radical left” for much of the political violence in the country. Read more ›
Final question: The last person to speak to Mr. Kirk before his assassination was a liberal TikToker, who asked Mr. Kirk about mass shootings involving transgender people. The two went back and forth before the shot that killed Mr. Kirk rang out. Read more ›
A bullet casing quoted ‘Bella Ciao,’ an antifascist anthem now popular with video gamers.
The phrase “bella ciao,” which officials said was inscribed on an unfired bullet casing tied to the man accused of killing the conservative activist Charlie Kirk, is likely a reference to a popular Italian folk song with a sprawling cultural history.
The song, “Bella Ciao,” was popularized as an antifascist anthem in Italy after World War II, but in recent years it has become known worldwide thanks to its inclusion in the hit Netflix series “Money Heist” and in video games, including in the first-person shooter video game Far Cry 6.
It has also been remixed by folk singers and EDM producers and sung by soccer fans and protesters around the world.
Sung annually on April 25 as part of Liberation Day, celebrating the end of Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship and the Nazi occupation in Italy, the song’s most widespread version tells the story of a “partisan,” according to English translations, “who died for freedom.” Addressed to a lover, the fighter requests to be buried atop a mountain “under the shade of a beautiful flower.”
According to Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, the suspect in Mr. Kirk’s assassination, Tyler Robinson, 22, had the lyrical refrain — “oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao” — written on a bullet casing, along with other phrases that seemed to reference internet memes.
The exact origins of the song are disputed, with some historians believing it originated from a melody recorded in 1919 by the klezmer accordionist Mishka Ziganoff. While the original lyrics are thought to reference the hard labor of female rice paddy weeders, the more explicitly political version was solidified in a popular rendition by the Italian-born French actor Yves Montand in the early 1960s.
On Spotify and YouTube, one can find dozens of versions, as performed by the guitarist Marc Ribot and folk singer Tom Waits; the indie singer-songwriter Mitski; the pop artist Becky G; the British anarchist pop group Chumbawamba, and many more.
In recent years, the song has seen renewed popularity thanks to its inclusion in the Spanish crime show “Money Heist,” an international smash on Netflix, as well as a dance music remix by El Profesor and Hugel (93 million views).
Gamers know it thanks to its inclusion in the video game Far Cry 6. (It is also sometimes used on TikTok to score highlights from the game Call of Duty: Warzone.)
“Bella Ciao” has resonated in the real world, as well. It was sung last year by progressive members of the European Parliament at Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary and adopted by protesters in Iran, Ukraine and Italy, where it was also belted from balconies as a show of unity during Covid-19 lockdowns.
Even European soccer fans have adopted the tune, reworking the lyrics to praise their preferred players.
“‘Bella Ciao’ is a ball of yarn interwoven with many threads of various colors,” the Italian folk singer Carlo Pestelli, who wrote a book about the song, has said.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09/12 ... ws-suspect
John McAndrew 
