Utah residents are reeling, knowing the Charlie Kirk suspect is one of their own

OREM, Utah — The arrest of Tyler Robinson sent shockwaves through the small community where his family lives. Washington, a city of around 30,000, sits next to St. George in Utah’s southwest corner. It’s a 3 ½-hour drive from the Utah Valley University campus.

The 22-year-old is the suspect in the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk during a Wednesday event at the campus in Orem. After a 33-hour manhunt, Robinson’s family helped turn him in the following day.

On Friday morning, after law enforcement released Robinson’s name, officers from the Washington City Police and Washington County Sheriff’s Office patrolled a quiet street, preventing onlookers from approaching the family’s two-story gray stucco home.

‘This is not who I wanted it to be’

Neighbor Kristin Schwiermann still couldn’t believe the news as she walked by.

“It was a shock that it was him,” she says, “I feel sorry for his mother and his dad because that’s not how they raised him.”

Schwiermann has lived a couple of houses down from the Robinsons for 16 years and has known the suspect since he was a little boy. She got to know the family when Tyler and his siblings attended the elementary school where she works.

“I really wanted them to find out who it was. This is not who I wanted it to be,” she says.

The Robinsons and Schwiermann had been part of the same local church, which, like most in this community, belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She hadn’t seen the family at church much recently, though.

Another neighbor, Melissa Tait, says it was a surprise to see her community connected with the shooting. But she believes it says more about the broader rising violence issues facing the country than it does about southwest Utah.

“I’m upset. This is horrific, but I am not shocked,” she says.

The residents’ sense of sadness was echoed in a statement from Washington County commissioners.

“To hear that the perpetrator of such terrible political violence was raised in our beautiful community is profoundly shocking,” the statement said. “Washington County, like Charlie Kirk himself, stands for the values of faith, freedom, the pursuit of happiness, and justice.”

To critics, however, Kirk was often viewed as a magnet for controversy who used his platform to spread conspiracy theories about the 2020 election, vaccines and transgender people.

Even after an arrest, many are still reeling in Utah

Nathan Pond, a trauma therapist in Orem, says he’s received almost 20 phone calls from people in the community seeking help since Wednesday’s assassination.

He says Robinson’s arrest has brought some sense of relief to the community: “The fact that they found him, I think everyone’s breathing a sigh of relief because he’s not still wandering around. We didn’t know where he was.”

But he says people in Orem, whether they were on campus that day or not, are still traumatized and in shock.

“A lot of people feel like it could have easily happened to them. People are scared” despite what the data says, he says, “I know the likelihood of being involved in mass shootings is rare. We are so much more likely to die driving home from work than we are to die in a mass shooting. But when we are scared, our sense of perspective diminishes.”

Pond works with a trauma dog, Roni, who patiently sits by him at a coffee shop less than a mile from campus. Even with the suspect detained, he says, the fact that there was an assassination in the community has people reeling. “People don’t feel safe. We’re reminded of how fragile our lives are and that feeling alone can create feelings of uneasiness and not feeling safe.”

Pond recalled the last time he saw such high levels of collective trauma.

“I haven’t seen anything at this level since September 11th.” he says referring to the terrorist attacks in 2001. “Everyone was able to see it. Everyone watched the towers fall, all the trauma and stuff that had to do with that was unthinkable,” Pond says. “And at this event, everyone got to see someone of influence die on their phone. And I think because of that, I can say I feel like it reached a level of traumatizing for everyone who pulled out their phone,” he says.

Sariah and Case Dearden are having breakfast at an outdoor cafe with their 4-month-old baby boy. They moved to Orem because they thought it was a safe community, but now they are rethinking that, they say.

The couple says those 33 hours before the alleged shooter was caught felt like an eternity.

He condemned Kirk’s murder. “I didn’t care for Charlie Kirk. I found him insufferable. But it’s awful what happened to him. No one deserves that, regardless of political beliefs.”

The couple says they’re grateful the suspect is alive. “At least we’re going to get some answers as to why he did it,” Sariah says. Her husband, Case, agrees. “That way justice can be served according to the law,” he says. “I know he’s already a coward for committing this assassination. I am glad he didn’t take another cowardly step and kill himself.”

But Case Dearden is concerned things could escalate. “This is an incendiary event. People are going to try and take justice in their own hands, is what I’m afraid of. And I don’t feel any safer that the man has been caught. People are pointing fingers in every direction even more now,” he says.