Some of the Text Messages of Charlie Kirk's Alleged Shooter Have Been Released

In the days since Charlie Kirk's assassination, there has been plenty of speculation about the motives of the alleged shooter, Tyler Robinson. Robinson, who appears to have been raised in a Republican-leaning household, has been pinned with every kind of ideology in the days since the shooting.

Thanks to new text messages between Tyler and his roommate that Utah County officials released on Sept. 16, though, we now know a little bit more about Robinson's motivations. Here's what the texts say.

According to CNN, Robinson told his roommate that he had left a note under his keyboard. The note said, “I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it.” Police also found a photo of the note. In their initial court filing, prosecutors describe Robinson's roommate as “a biological male who was involved in a romantic relationship with Robinson.”

The text messages, which were provided by Robinson's roommate, make it clear that the roommate was not aware of Robinson's plan until after he had done it. "I am still ok my love, but am stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet. Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still. To be honest I had hoped to keep this secret till I died of old age. I am sorry to involve you," he wrote.

Naturally, his roommate asked him why he had committed the act.

"I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out. If I am able to grab my rifle unseen, I will have left no evidence. Going to attempt to retrieve it again, hopefully they have moved on. I haven’t seen anything about them finding it," he responded. Most of the subsequent texts are about him hoping that he can get away without getting caught.

"Remember how I was engraving bullets? The f--kin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see 'notices bulge uwu' on Fox News I might have a stroke alright I'm gonna have to leave it, that really f--king sucks," he wrote in a separate message.

These text message seem to suggest that Robinson felt the need to gun down Kirk because of his messages of "hate," although he didn't offer much elaboration on what that might mean.

Those theorizing that Robinson was right wing, though, seem to have been contradicted by this evidence, which suggests that Robinson was motivated to shoot Kirk because of his ideas.

The very casual nature of the messages he sent is alarming in and of itself, and there might be more to learn about exactly why he felt Kirk was the right target.

For now, though, these messages are a concrete step toward understanding why Robinson felt the need to kill Kirk. Of course, it will always be almost impossible to fully understand the motivations of someone who feels compelled to do something so violent.