Suspected killer of Charlie Kirk caught, says Trump

US President Donald Trump has announced that the suspected killer of Charlie Kirk has been taken into custody.

“I think we have him,” Trump said. "With a high degree of certainty, we have him in custody."

Speaking to Fox News, the US president said: "Somebody very close to him turned him in."

He then shared further details on how that person went to the suspect's father, who then went to a US Marshal, the BBC reports.

"The father convinced the son [to turn himself in]," Trump said.

Trump also said the suspect is aged "28 or 29" – authorities previously said the suspect appeared to be collage age.

At a subsequent FBI news conference that followed shortly after the US president's comments on 12 September, the suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk was named as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.

Two sources told the BBC's US media partner, CBS, that Robinson resides in Southern Utah and apparently confessed to his father.

Charlie Kirk, the American political activist and founder of Turning PointUSA, died after being shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University.

The fatal shooting occurred on the evening of 10 September during an open-air forum held on campus as part of Kirk’s “American Comeback Tour”.

Kirk was answering a question about mass shootings in the United States when a single gunshot was fired. The bullet struck him in the neck.

RELATED: Charlie Kirk’s murder and reactions to it indicate a society in moral freefall

‍Photo: Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk is seen onstage at the Fiserv Forum during preparations for the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 14 July 2024. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images.)

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