By Tim Rohr
According to media reports, Charlie Kirk's 22 year old assassin was "...a brilliant, church-going kid," the recipient of "a prestigious academic scholarship to college," and "a 'very nice' Mormon (who) regularly went to church with his family."
“He was a smart kid … I was shocked this was even him,” said a neighbor. In short, he was "the boy next door," a very smart, decent, family-loving, church-going boy.
As the media reports progress, accounts of Tyler Robinson's radicalization begin to seep into the narrative:
Robinson had become increasingly political in recent years and ranted just before killing Kirk that he believed the activist was “full of hate,’’ officials said Friday.
The question quickly becomes:
How did an otherwise smart, decent, family-loving, church going kid, turn political assassin in what must have been a very short period of time, the time between graduating from high school with a "college presidential scholarship" to Utah State University, the "highest academic scholarship the school offers," to pulling the trigger on September 10, 2025.
According to some who knew him, Robinson became radicalized through "bad friends and social media." However, given the pictures of Robinson with his family, and also given that he is Mormon - meaning even closer family ties and support, it's hard to see how he could have gone from the Mormon boy next door to the first political assassin in this country since 1968 by just a very few years of exposure to "bad friends and social media."
Just as I was about to tell you what I think happened, I received a message that led me to this video, wherein the narrator says:
But something happened to Tyler at college that happens to a lot of students. Take a look at these people who went to college and came out worse.
The New York Post reported:
But the accused killer spent just one semester at the Logan school in fall 2021 before he took a leave of absence for reasons the school could not disclose, she said.
I red-flagged this when I first read it a few hours ago. Robinson had received "the highest academic scholarship the school offers," and he spent just one semester using that scholarship "before he took a leave of absence for reasons the school could not disclose."
Given what he did on September 10, 2025, it's not hard to see how Robinson went from the "very nice" Mormon boy next door to political assassin. I've seen it happen first hand, in my own family.
No, no one became an assassin, but I sadly witnessed one of my most beautiful, most intelligent, and most prayerful children, and a child who I felt exceptionally close to, become an absolutely different person after her college experience - and it was a highly touted Catholic college.
And by "different," I mean in the worst way, and to the point where she publicly renounced her Catholic faith, or seemingly, any faith. Because she is my daughter and I love her, I won't say more. But the only variable between who she was and what she became was her college years.
I wasn't surprised though. I too went to a "highly touted Catholic college," and came out "radicalized." I won't get into details, but college, particularly my theology classes, crippled me morally and psychologically for years to come. In fact, I believe I'm still in recovery.
It's interesting watching the raw emotion pouring out from every corner of the media over the Kirk assassination. There is a lot of finger pointing, and a lot of talk about "the left, the left, the left." But, at least in my experience, the real root of the demented hate that is saturating our culture today and has led to the first political assassination in this country since 1968, is hiding in plain sight, right in the classroom, especially a college classroom, and even a Catholic college classroom.
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