HURRICANE, Utah, Sept. 17, 2025 (Gephardt Daily) — Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby spoke from his Hurricane headquarters Wednesday afternoon, sharing new insights into his office’s facilitating Tyler Robinson’s surrender to law enforcement.
Robinson, 22, from Washington city, is accused of the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Sept. 10 at Utah Valley University in Orem.
“What I’m going to be discussing is not anything to do with the ongoing investigation. We are not the lead agency,” Brooksby told reporters, saying his statement was “going to be focused on how we’re able to get Tyler to voluntarily come and turn himself in at my office. That’s going to be the scope of it.”
According to Brooksby, it was about 33 hours into the investigation and manhunt after Kirk’s fatal shooting when a retired detective Brooksby previously worked with called him on the phone, just after 8 p.m. on Sept. 11.
Photos: Utah Department of Public Safety
“I can tell his voice is kind of shaky, so my first thought is, who died?,” Brooksby recalled
“So he said, ‘Hey, I know who the Charlie Kirk shooter is. I know the family through religious association. And he’s in Washington County now, and we’re working on trying to get him to come in voluntarily.”
The suspect, later identified as Robinson, was having suicidal thoughts, “and was en route to a remote area in Washington County. The parents convinced him not to do that, and, you know, conveyed that they would, you know, stand by him and help him, help him surrender peacefully.”
Brooksby next called Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, “who I knew was at the incident command in Utah County. So for about 40 seconds, I’m telling Sheriff Smith, ‘Hey, yeah, I’m confident we have the shooter in Washington County. We’re working on getting him to come in and surrender at my office.’ We didn’t have him yet.”
Smith was shocked, Brooksby said.
“He said, ‘How credible is it?’ I said, ‘I trust this, this guy that called me with my life, and I think it’s time you need to get your people, the lead investigators’ headed to Washington County.'”
Tyler J. Robinson photo (right), released by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox; Google Map image of the drive between Washington city and Orem, Utah
Within the hour, the man who had called Brooksby drove Robinson and his parents to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, where they were met by plain clothes detectives.
“Part of the deal is Tyler knew it was just inevitable — with all the law enforcement pressure, his picture in the news, the gun on the news — he knew he would be caught. He was fearful of a SWAT team hit on his house, or he was fearful of being shot by law enforcement. So part of the negotiation and getting him to bring himself in was that we would treat it as delicate and as soft as possible, to make him feel comfortable to where he would show up at my office, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Robinson waited, sitting on a couch in a room, Brooksby said. He was not handcuffed.
“He was sitting on a very comfortable couch with a water bottle in his hand, not restrained. He was cooperative, somber, quiet.”
Tyler Robinson booking photo shared by the Office of Gov. Spencer Cox.
Robinson was not questioned by Washington County Sheriff officials, Brooksby said.
“Our job was not to interview. Our job was just to get him here. So after about two and a half hours, we end up getting federal agents and state agents in, and some of my detectives were asked to go out into the community and secure two locations, so the parents’ home and the apartment that Tyler was living in” could be searched,” Brooksby said. Robinson’s vehicle also was searched.
Brooksby said his former coworker, who convinced Robinson and his parents to come in, “deserves full credit,” adding “Tyler’s family trusted this individual. They knew he was involved in law enforcement at some point, and enough community involvement there that they trusted that they could go to this individual and he could contact me directly, and that we could facilitate a peaceful, calm, relaxed surrender” and “make him comfortable for a couple hours.”
Charlie Kirk. File photo by Tannen Maury/UPI
Brooksby said he’s heard people talk about how this kind of thing — the assassination of high-profile political figures — just doesn’t happen in Utah.
“Unfortunately, it did. But then to have the suspect be a Utah resident who literally went to the same high school I went to? I mean, we’re like 30 years apart, but I went to the same high school. He happened to go to the same high school here in Washington County. So it’s a, it’s a, it’s a double shock factor,” Brooksby said, that the high-profile shooting happened in Utah, “and then the suspect happened to be a homegrown Washington County boy.”
*Note: Sheriff Brooksby prefaced his statements at Wednesday’s press conference by calling attention to mistaken media reports identifying a former deputy as the father of alleged gunman Tyler Robinson. While they share the same last name, there is no family connection, nor is the retired deputy involved in the case, Brooksby said.
The errant reporting has led to the former deputy being harassed.”He’s had to leave his house at this point,” Brooksby said. “So whatever you can do to help walk that back, I’d appreciate it. His family would appreciate that.”
