The radicalizing relationship between alleged Charlie Kirk murderer Tyler Robinson and trans lover Lance Twiggs

Tyler Robinson grew up in a conservative family, but through accounts that have emerged following the killing of Charlie Kirk, a crime for which he has been charged, a picture of a young man who veered entirely off course comes into view.

He was a scholarship-winning high schooler and a quiet but well-liked honor roll student. He was into video games, comics, and current events. So how did he end up the only suspect in the public, brutal assassination of conservative activist and thought leader Charlie Kirk? 

A former high-school classmate of Robinson’s, Keaton Brooksby, said “It’s really sad that someone with his mind put it to that sort of use.” Piecing together Robinson’s story from accounts of acquaintances, friends, and police documentation, Robinson’s trajectory is partially revealed.

By the time of the shooting, Robinson had given up a scholarship at Utah State University after studying there for just one semester. He was enrolled in an electrical apprentice program at Dixie Technical College. 

Robinson was living with a roommate in St. George, Utah with whom he was involved romantically. It may have been this relationship that changed Robinson’s views on life and the political landscape. 

That roommate, Lance Twiggs, was transitioning from male to female and was reportedly taking black market hormone replacement therapy. Twiggs’ parents had kicked him out of their home in 2018, though his parents would occasionally send him money. Robinson had moved into the apartment after leaving college and deciding he didn’t want to live with his parents anymore.

Twiggs and his parents appear to have had a difficult relationship. One family member revealed that the reason for Twiggs moving out of his parents’ home was that he “wasn’t being respectful and was problematic.” They further said that Twiggs was using drugs and was hooked on online gaming. High school faculty, however, said “he was a great kid.” 

Another relative of Twiggs said the relationship between Robinson and Twiggs was not beneficial for Robinson. “I think Tyler got a whole lot worse in the year [he and Robinson] have been dating. They are big gamers, and obviously they have that group that influences them, as well as others,” they said.

Robinson has been reported to have played pornographic video games featuring furry characters and followed accounts that shared cartoons showing pedophilia. Online accounts that were unearthed allegedly belonging to Robinson on gaming platform Steam reveal that Robinson was a viewer of gay pornography, including that which involved “furry” characters. He had downloaded and played a game called “Furry Shades of Gray,” which is described as being about “love, queer relationships, hot gay sex, and slapstick humor.” 

Robinson reportedly played so frequently that he’d earned an anthropomorphic cat character who dresses as a French maid. The game also has “24 hot animated voice sex scenes.” The username he had to play that game, Craftin247, was also used to view content by “RedRusker,” who is an artist that creates gay furry porn, including furry characters using drugs and engaging with under-age furry characters. He followed another artist, called “Obure,” who shared and created furry content and very overweight women eating.

Neighbors at the apartment complex where the two were living said they barely saw Robinson and that he didn’t speak to anyone but that they would hear loud music blasting from the apartment. Text messages shared by Turkey Tom from “someone familiar with Lance and Tyler” show that their relationship was bizarre and their living situation was unhealthy.

Per these messages, Twiggs was also reportedly taking drugs “like weed lsd shrooms dmt” and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol. He was moody and volatile and engaged in off behaviors, such as saving mold in the kitchen of their apartment.

Twiggs, Turkey Tom reported the associated as saying, would live in the living room and “turn it into his nest.” That nest was like mountain of trash with “layers of wires, random temu trinkets, decorations, random art projects, clothes, and empty alcohol containers everywhere.” And Twiggs would “get livid” if anyone would touch it.

In these messages, his associate of Twiggs and Robinson said he tried to separate from the two because “being around them wasn’t good for me.” Robinson, he said, was “level headed and easy going,” but Twiggs would go from “too depressed to talk to manic wide eyes crazy person.”

While Robinson “was kinda your normal blue collar utah guy,” Twiggs would “rant about republicans and Mormons” every time he would see his mother. He could go on “ranting” like this for four hours or so.

Robinson and Twiggs began a relationship and Robinson, the associate said, “was a virgin when he moved in.” The associate told Turkey Tom something romantic likely happened between Robinson and Twiggs when Twiggs was drunk, as he tended to become amorous while under the influence of alcohol.

While Robinson had been previously described as “apolitical” and Twiggs as “libertarian,” the associate said that he “started noticing changes in lances political views as the presidential election got closer.”

Twiggs was upset about being “misgendered” by construction workers and stared at by old people. Robinson would complain about Trump leading up to the election. An alleged Discord message from Robinson’s user name on July 13, 2024 read “snowflake liberals cant shoot straight cause they too busy being gay,” regarding the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.

The associate said wasn’t until after Trump won his second term that he began to “get political.” By June 2025, Twiggs was asking friends to go to the “No Kings” protest in St. George against Trump.

Twiggs, Robinson, and their “quirky LGBTQ” friend group “with alot of mental illnesses” became “a lot more political” after the election. The couple “were some flavor of leftwing.” By the time Trump took office, Twiggs was back to being “erratic” and was “growing breasts.” He began to remake his living room nest, as well.

Notes left around the apartment by Twiggs, per the associate, show strange scribbling doodles with odd faces and instructions to “stabilize” and “calm down.” Other words appear to read “Time, finally, to tune, I’m not spiraling,” and “sleep.” 

Other notes read “I’m a loan” and “do anything for me?” Along with “good call?” Another says “stop-looking 4_others”. When he was writing these things and “vigorously” scribbling, the associate said Twiggs would speak gibberish.

“And the way he spoke was weird it was a bunch of words but none of them made sense together or sometime it’s be in rhyme or just sometimes hed only smile and point at shit.”

“Bro,” the associate continued, “if I were religious I would’ve called an exorcist. The smile was so fucking scary.” This is the environment Robinson was living in and this was the man with whom he was intimately involved as he allegedly began to come up with the plan to kill Kirk.

“Tyler told me that lance had basically been up for like 3 days straight talking to chat gpt,” the associate said. Sometimes he would find Twiggs “sobbing in Tyler’s arms and Tyler would be rocking him back and forth.”

Even as he distanced himself from the couple, who were still allegedly having sex at the time, the associate said that “it was just so much energy to try and deal with lance. Tyler was really a trooper for dealing with him.”

“Tyler,” he said, “was basically his handler at this point to take care of him.” He said that Tyler could “act completely normal” even while Twiggs was freaking out. 

Per the charging documents, Robinson’s mother said that her son “had become more political and had started to lean more to the left—becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” She confirmed to police that Robinson was in a relationship with “his roommate, a biological male who was transitioning genders.” This created turmoil between Robinson and his father.

In the weeks leading up to Kirk’s killing, Robinson had spoken to a family member about the TPUSA event taking place at Utah Valley University. He told that relative he “didn’t like him and the viewpoints he had.”

On Sept. 12 in the early morning hours, according to Turkey Tom’s Substack, Twiggs’ Discord account was “not found.” A Discord message from Robinson that afternoon read “Hey guys, I have bad news for you all, it was me at UVU yesterday. i’m sorry for all of this. im surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments. thanks for all the good time and laughs, you’ve all been so amazing. thank you all for everything.”

Police spoke to Twiggs after the shooting and say that he revealed text messages to them that were between himself and Robinson in the moments after the shooting. Those alleged message were then made public by police in a press conference.

In addition to Robinson’s complaints about Kirk and claiming ownership over bullets engraved with memes, he referred to Twiggs in the alleged messages as “my love” and said he was “worried” about him. Robinson encouraged Twiggs not to “talk to the media” and said “don’t take any interviews or make any comments.” One of those bullets was engraved with the message “Notices, bulge, OwO what’s this?” Police said. “OwO” is a text emoji representing a wide-eyed cat face.

Robinson also told Twiggs, per the charging documents, “drop what you are doing, look under my keyboard.” Under that keyboard was a note reading “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” Twiggs apparently didn’t believe it. Robinson also told Twiggs to delete the texts.

Despite those text messages, Twiggs did talk to investigators and shortly after the shooting. He was later gone from the apartment, and his car appeared parked in his parents’ driveway. Police have said that Twiggs is cooperating with them in the investigation into Robinson.