Experts don’t know what to make of the evidence.
CNN — Experts say that the document charging Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder in the Charlie Kirk case sheds no significant light on his motive, which may remain a mystery forever.
“It’s frustrating for everyone, I know,” Janice Bennington, a scholar in residence on online hate at the Stonington Forum for an Informed Public, told CNN. “But it’s irresponsible to get ahead of the facts here.”
The charging document refers to Robinson “intentionally” targeting Kirk and notes that he did it because of his “belief or perception regarding Charlie Kirk’s political expression.”
While some experts say this provides a hint of a motive, most agree the language is far too ambiguous to draw firm conclusions.
“What does ‘expression’ mean?” asked Bennington. “It is a term open to interpretation. It can mean the look on someone’s face, an idiom, or even a collection of mathematical symbols.”
She added, “I’m sure the prosecutors would have been clearer if they had more information.”
The charging document reproduces a series of text messages from Robinson to his gender-transitioning romantic partner in the immediate aftermath of the shooting discussing his actions and thinking in stark detail.
In the texts, Robinson tells his partner that he “had enough of his hatred,” referring to Kirk.
Bruce Windstar, an attorney with the LGBTQIA+ Law Center, said it would be premature to make too much of that line, given Robinson’s emotional state at the time. “Look, he’d just assassinated someone,” he explained. “Of course, he might have said some crazy things. But I think it’d be wrong to judge him, or his state of mind, based on a bad moment.”
Further, the experts contacted by CNN overwhelmingly said they were moved, on a personal level, by those text messages. “What they prove, without a doubt, is that trans love is true love,” Windstar said.
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Republicans have pounced on the statement of Robinson’s mother in the charging document that her son had moved left over the last year. Experts observe, though, that all political movement is relative. If Robinson started out on the far right, he still might have been right-of-center, even as he became more supportive of LGBTQIA+ rights.
“Every time there’s an event like this,” Bennington lamented, “there’s a rush to judgment and a ‘gotcha game.’ I think it’d be much better if we all withheld judgment until there’s a shooting that’s more politically convenient for those of us who have spent so many years studying this area.”
When CNN contacted a law enforcement source to ask when something more might be known about Robinson’s motive, he muttered, “You’ve got to be kidding me,” and requested anonymity to hang up on a reporter angrily.