Man Who Falsely Confessed To Killing Charlie Kirk Had Sexually Explicit Images of Children on His Phone, Police Say

Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office & Tess Crowley/The Deseret News via AP

George Zinn, a 71-year-old man who claimed to be the shooter following the killing of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University last week, confessed to the FBI that he did so “to allow the actual suspect to flee,” according to a new statement.

In a statement, the Utah County Sheriff’s Department revealed that Zinn was currently being held for felony obstruction of justice and four counts of felony sexual exploitation of a minor:

Zinn admitted that he had yelled that he was the shooter to allow the actual suspect to flee and to hinder Law Enforcement. During the interview, the Agents asked to look at Zinn’s phone and Zinn agreed to let them. Zinn told the Agents that he uses his phone to view and abuse Child Sex Abuse Material and there may be some images on his phone. Those Agents did see several images on the phone of prepubescent girls scantily dressed.

Subsequently, investigators reportedly found “over 20 images of children ranging from 5 to 12 years old in various stages of undress and sexual posing,” as well as “several very graphic sexual text threads in which Zinn shared the images with other parties.”

“Zinn admitted to UCSO SVU Investigators that he gets sexual gratification from viewing and sharing the CSAM images with others, and that his preferred victim age is 5 to 12 years old,” the statement said.

Zinn was arrested by police at Utah Valley University following Kirk’s assassination after he screamed that he was responsible for the brutal killing.

After a manhunt that lasted several days, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was named as the real suspect in the killing of Kirk.

Robinson – who was reportedly in a relationship with his transgender roommate – had started to become more interested in “pro-gay and trans rights” over the past year and had accused Kirk of spreading “hate,” according to officials.

“I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” Robinson reportedly told his transgender partner after the shooting.