Washington
\nA 22-year-old from Utah has been arrested over the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while on stage at a university event earlier this week.
\nTyler Robinson was taken into custody late on Thursday, after a 33-hour manhunt that ended after his father helped persuade him to surrender to police.
\nHis arrest was first announced by US President Donald Trump, who called for the suspect to face the death penalty.
\nThe killing of Kirk, who was shot while debating with students on Wednesday, has shocked Americans and laid bare the country\u2019s sharp partisan divisions.
\nInvestigators said at a news conference on Friday that the suspect had confessed to his father and said he would rather take his own life than surrender. The father then called a youth pastor who is a family friend.
\nBoth men tried to calm the suspect down, police said. The pastor, who also serves as a court security officer, later called the US Marshals, who detained the suspect at around 22:00 local time on Thursday.
\nUtah\u2019s Governor Spencer Cox said surveillance images showed Mr Robinson arriving on the campus of Utah Valley University around four hours before a shot rang out, killing Kirk and sending students running for cover.
\nCox told journalists that when Mr Robinson was taken into custody, he was wearing clothing similar to what was seen on CCTV cameras at the scene of the shooting.
\nThe governor added that investigators had interviewed a family member, who said the suspect had become more political in recent years.
\nCox said the family member had spoken of a recent incident when Mr Robinson had mentioned that Kirk was coming to Utah and that he \u201cwas full of hate and spreading hate\u201d.
\nCox said investigators had also spoken to a roommate of the suspect who had shown them exchanges of messages with an account named \u201cTyler\u201d on the messaging app Discord.
\nThe messages referred to a need to retrieve a rifle from \u201ca drop point\u201d and the firearm being left in a bush, wrapped in a towel.
\nThe FBI said on Thursday that they had found the suspected weapon – an imported Mauser .30-06 bolt action rifle – wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near campus.
\nCox told reporters that inscriptions had been found engraved on casings recovered with the rifle, which had a scope mounted on top of it.
\nThe inscriptions included \u201chey fascist! CATCH!\u201d and \u201cO Bella ciao, Bella ciao\u201d.
\n\u201cBella ciao\u201d means \u201cgoodbye beautiful\u201d in Italian. It is also the title of a song dedicated to the Italian resistance that fought against the occupying troops of Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Washington A 22-year-old from Utah has been arrested over the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while on stage at a university event earlier this week. Tyler Robinson was taken into custody late on Thursday, after a 33-hour manhunt that ended after his father helped persuade him to surrender to police. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":502759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-502735","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n