Utah
Shooting suspect had ‘very different ideology’ than conservative family, Utah governor says
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.
Robinson’s arrest was announced on Friday after he surrendered to authorities to end a two-day manhunt in the wake of the 31-year-old Kirk’s killing.
At the time of his arrest, Robinson was a third-year student in an electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College.
Utah records show both of his parents are registered Republicans who voted in the 2024 election that gave Donald Trump, their party’s leader, a second presidency. But publicly available information offers little if any insight into Robinson’s personal beliefs.
Cox made it a point to tell NBC that “friends that have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet … culture and these other dark places of the internet” where Robinson “was going deep”. The governor did not elaborate – though on Saturday, citing the work of law enforcement, he told the Wall Street Journal that “it’s very clear to us and to investigators that this was a person who was deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology.”
On Sunday, in a separate interview, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Cox to elaborate on his comments to the Journal.
“That information comes from the people around him, from his family members and his friends – that’s how we got that information,” Cox told CNN. “There’s so much more that we’re learning, and so much more that we will learn.”
Bash also asked Cox whether the roommate’s status was relevant to the investigation and a potential motive. The governor replied, “That is what we are trying to figure out right now.”
“I know everybody wants to know exactly why, and point the finger,” Cox said. “And I totally get that. I do, too.”
Yet Cox said he had not read all interview transcripts compiled by investigators, “so I just want to be careful … and so we’ll have to wait and see what comes out.”
Cox said he expected the public would learn more when formal charges were filed against Robinson. The governor said he expected that to happen Tuesday.
During his CNN appearance, Cox also said that investigators were looking into a potential note left by Robinson.
Officials at the group chat app Discord recently said that they had identified an account on the platform associated with Robinson – but found no evidence that the suspect planned the incident on the platform.
The spokesperson for Discord did say that there were “communications between the suspect’s roommate and a friend after the shooting, where the roommate was recounting the contents of a note the suspect had left elsewhere”.
When asked about the note, Cox said that “those are things that are still being processed for accuracy and verification”. He suggested additional details about the note could be “included in charging documents”.
Members of both of the US’s major political parties on Sunday reiterated condemnations of Kirk’s killing and political violence in general.
“Every American is harmed by this – it’s an attack on an individual and an attack on a country whose entire purpose, entire way of being is that we can resolve what we need to resolve through a political process,” Pete Buttigieg, a Democrat who served as the US transportation secretary during Joe Biden’s presidency, said to Welker.
Republican US senator Lindsey Graham, meanwhile, told Welker: “What I’m asking everybody to do is not to resort to violence to settle your political differences.”
Arizona State basketball is at a crossroads. After back-to-back road losses to Baylor and TCU, the Sun Devils are suddenly fighting just to stay above .500.
Now, with Utah coming to town Saturday afternoon, this isn’t just another conference game. It feels bigger than that. It feels like the moment that decides whether this season still has life or if it quietly fades away.
The Danger of Falling Below .500
All season long, Arizona State has had one strange pattern.
Every time they dropped to .500, they responded with a win. They never let things spiral.
But now they’re sitting right on the edge again.
A loss to Utah would push them below .500 for the first time all year. That might not sound dramatic, but it matters for team morale.
Teams feel that shift. Confidence changes. Urgency changes. And with only a few games left before the Big 12 Tournament, there isn’t much time to recover.
That’s why this Utah game feels different.
Utah Is Playing Better — Especially on Defense
When these two teams met a few weeks ago, Utah was struggling.
Since then, they’ve improved. They’re still built around their top scorers, who combine for around 40 points per game, but the real difference lately has been defense.
Utah has started putting together more complete defensive performances. They’re contesting shots better. They’re finishing possessions. They’re not folding as easily in the second half.
That matters because Arizona State’s biggest issue right now isn’t effort, it’s physical depth.
The Real Niche Problem: Guard-Heavy and Worn Down
Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough: Arizona State’s roster balance is off.
Because of injuries, especially the likely season-ending absence of Marcus Adams Jr., the Sun Devils are extremely guard-heavy right now. More than half of the available players are guards. That creates matchup issues, especially against physical teams.
We saw it against TCU. They got to the free-throw line 36 times.
They won the physical battle. Even when their best scorer struggled, they still controlled the game inside.
ASU just doesn’t have the same frontcourt depth.
With only a few true bigs available and some undersized forwards playing bigger roles than expected, the team can get worn down.
Late in games, that shows up in missed rebounds, second-chance points, and tired legs.
It’s not about hustle. It’s about bodies.
Why Saturday Truly Matters
If Arizona State beats Utah, everything changes.
Suddenly, you’re heading into Senior Night against Kansas with momentum. Win that, and you’re talking about a possible 7–11 conference finish and a much better Big 12 Tournament matchup.
From there? Anything can happen.
But if they lose Saturday, the math and the hope get much harder.
That’s why this game isn’t just about Utah.
It’s about belief. It’s about roster limitations. And it’s about whether this team has one more push left in them before the season runs out.
SALT LAKE CITY — A controversial Utah proposal to crack down on the presence of immigrants in the country illegally that had seemed stalled gained new life Friday, passing muster in new form in a relatively narrow vote.
In a 39-33 vote, the Utah House approved HB386 — amended with portions of HB88, which stalled in the House on Monday — and the revamped measure now goes to the Utah Senate for consideration.
The reworked version of HB386, originally meant just to repeal outdated immigration legislation, now also contains provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to tap into in-state university tuition, certain home loan programs and certain professional licensing.
The new HB386 isn’t as far-reaching as HB88, which also would have prohibited immigrants in the country illegally from being able to access certain public benefits like food at food pantries, immunizations for communicable diseases and emergency housing.
Moreover, Rep. Trevor Lee, R-Layton and the HB88 sponsor, stressed that the new provisions in HB386 wouldn’t impact immigrants in the country legally. He touted HB88 as a means of making sure taxpayer money isn’t funneled to programming that immigrants in the country illegally can tap.
Rep. Lisa Shepherd, R-Provo, the HB386 sponsor, sounded a similar message, referencing, with chagrin, the provision allowing certain students in the country illegally to access lower in-state tuition rates at Utah’s public universities. Because of such provisions “we’re taking care of other countries’ children first, and I want to take care of Utahns first. In my campaign I ran and said Utahns first and this bill will put Utahns first,” she said.
If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us.
–Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful
The relatively narrow 39-33 vote, atypical in the GOP-dominated Utah Legislature, followed several other narrow, hotly contested procedural votes to formally amend HB386. Foes, including both Democrats and Republicans, took particular umbrage with provisions prohibiting immigrants in the country illegally from being able to pay in-state tuition and access certain scholarships.
As is, students in the country illegally who have attended high school for at least three years in Utah and meet other guidelines may pay lower in-state tuition, but if they have to pay out-of-state tuition instead, they could no longer afford to go to college.
“If we stop young folks who have lived here much of their life from going to school and getting an education, it is really clear to me that we have hurt that person. It’s not clear to me at all that we have benefitted the rest of us,” said Rep. Ray Ward, R-Bountiful.
Rep. Hoang Nguyen, D-Salt Lake City, noted her own hardscrabble upbringing as an immigrant from Vietnam and said the changes outlined in the reworked version of HB386 run counter to what she believes Utah stands for.
“I fear that what we’re doing here in Utah is we are eroding what truly makes Utah special, the Utah way. We are starting to adopt policies that are regressive and don’t take care of people. Utahns are one thing. Citizens are one thing. People is the first thing,” she said.
Rep. John Arthur, D-Cottonwood Heights, said the measure sends a negative message to the immigrant students impacted.
“If we pass this bill today, colleagues, we will be telling these young people — again, who have graduated from our high schools, these kids who have gone to at least three years of school here — that you’re no longer a Utahn,” he said.
If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways.
–Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland
Rep. Kristen Chevrier, R-Highland, said the debate underscores a “fallacy” about compassion. She backed the reworked version of HB386, saying Utah resources should be first spend on those in the country legally.
“If we are compassionate to those who come the legal way and we are compassionate to those who already live here, that does not mean that we lack compassion for others in other ways,” she said.
The original version of HB386 calls for repeal of immigration laws on the books that are outdated because other triggering requirements have not been met or they run counter to federal law.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — A man died after he was caught in an avalanche in Big Cottonwood Canyon over the weekend.
A spokesperson for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Thursday that Kevin Williams, 57, had died.
He, along with one other person, was hospitalized in critical condition after Saturday’s avalanche in the backcountry.
MORE | Big Cottonwood Canyon Avalanche
In an interview with 2News earlier this week, one of Williams’ close friends, Nate Burbidge, described him as a loving family man.
“Kevin’s an amazing guy. He’s always serving, looking for ways that he can connect with others,” Burbidge said.
A GoFundMe was set up to help support Williams’ family.
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