President Trump announced Friday that authorities have Charlie Kirk’s suspected assassin in custody.
“He’s in custody,” Mr. Trump said, adding that someone “very close” to the suspect turned him in.
The president said the suspect’s father drove him to the police station and that a minister was involved.
“With a high degree of certainty, we have him,” Mr. Trump said on “Fox & Friends.” “Everyone did a great job and worked with the local police.”
“Subject to change, but the facts are the facts. We have the person that we think is the person we’re looking for,” Mr. Trump said.
The FBI’s circulation of photos of the suspect on Thursday appeared to pay off.
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“Somebody very close to him said, ‘That’s him,’ and went to the father, went to law enforcement,” Mr. Trump said. “The person was involved in law enforcement but was a person of faith, a minister. He brought him to a U.S. Marshal and the father convinced the son, ‘This is it.”
The president said he just heard about the custody, saying law enforcement told him ‘it looked very good.”
Mr. Trump praised law enforcement for the work, saying they started with little evidence and only a small video clip and worked the evidence to catch the suspected assassin.
Mr. Kirk, the 31-year-old co-founder of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, was shot to death while speaking at Utah Valley University on Wednesday. It was the first stop of his American Comeback Tour.
The president’s announcement comes as the manhunt for Mr. Kirk’s killer stretched into its third day and just hours after officials released a new video of the person of interest.
In the most recent video of the suspect, which was played during a Thursday night news conference, the apparent gunman can be seen climbing down from the roof of a building on the campus of Utah Valley University, where authorities believe he fired the shot and then fled the scene.
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The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the person responsible for Mr. Kirk’s murder.
Also Thursday, authorities released photos of the person of interest in the shooting. The photos show an individual carrying a black backpack and wearing a T-shirt with an American flag print on it. Officials have described the suspect as college-aged.
Authorities have received more than 7,000 tips and leads and conducted some 200 interviews, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said at a press conference.
The FBI also said it has recovered what it believes to be the weapon used in the shooting, saying a “high-powered bolt-action rifle” was recovered in the woods near where the shooting took place, according to Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Bohls.