Trump confirms authorities have suspect in custody in Charlie Kirk killing, alleged shooter ID'd

President Trump on Friday morning expressed confidence that authorities now have a suspect in custody in the fatal shooting earlier this week of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk. The suspect has been identified as 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson, according to a report.

Five law enforcement officials briefed NBC News on the suspect's identity.

"I think with a high degree of certainty we have" a suspect "in custody," President Trump said on the Fox News channel. 

Earlier in the morning, multiple sources told Just the News the FBI and Utah authorities had detained a person of interest in the investigation and are gathering evidence in hopes of filing a state arrest warrant later Friday.

Trump in the interview said that "someone very close" to the suspect turned him in. 

He said that based on preliminary information, someone recognized the person in the photos of the suspected shooter and contacted that person's father, who contacted U.S. marshals.

The president said he heard that the suspect was in custody "five minutes before I walked in," adding that the local authorities "did a great job, everybody worked together."

"It all worked out," he said.

Trump noted that authorities started with "absolutely nothing."

"We started off with a clip that made him look like an ant, that was almost useless. We just saw there was somebody up there."

Trump also said that he hopes Kirk's killer receives the death penalty.

"Kirk was the finest person, and he didn't deserve this," he said.

Kirk, a 31-year-old conservative political activist, was fatally shot Wednesday from about 150 yards away by an assassin with a high-powered rifle at Utah Valley University, in Orem, Utah.

Trump in the interview seemed to say the person of interest was taken into custody after a person identified him in a photo and that the suspect's father facilitated law enforcement detaining his son.