Spencer Cox says suspect had been ‘radicalized’, and had a romantic partner transitioning from male to female
Spencer Cox says suspect had been ‘radicalized’, and had a romantic partner transitioning from male to female
The Utah governor, Spencer Cox, on Sunday told national talkshows that the man suspected of killing Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk was living with and in a relationship with a person “transitioning from male to female” as investigators continue exploring a possible motive in the attack.
The Republican politician’s comments came four days after Kirk – a critic of gay and transgender rights – was shot to death from a distance with a rifle during an event at Utah Valley University while speaking with a student about mass shootings in the US and trans people. Nonetheless, Cox stopped short of saying that officials had determined the suspect’s partner’s alleged status was a factor in Kirk’s killing.
In comments to NBC’s Meet the Press, Cox said that Kirk’s accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was not cooperating with authorities. Yet authorities are gathering information from family members and people around him, Cox said.
Cox said that what investigators had gathered showed Robinson “does come from a conservative family – but his ideology was very different than his family”.
Citing the content of investigators’ interviews with people close to Robinson, Cox said “we do know that the [suspect’s] roommate … is a [partner] who is transitioning from male to female.
“I will say that that person has been very cooperative with authorities,” Cox remarked to Meet the Press host Kristen Welker, referring to the roommate. “And … the why behind this … we’re all drawing lots of conclusions on how someone like this could be radicalized. And I think that those are important questions for us to ask and important questions for us to answer.”
The governor did not elaborate on the evidence that investigators were relying on to establish Robinson’s relationship to his roommate with whom he shared an apartment in Washington county, Utah, about 260 miles from where Kirk was killed.
