A 22-year-old wannabe professional gamer who lived with Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin gave cops incriminating text messages leading to his arrest.
Lance Twiggs turned over Tyler Robinson, who lived with him in a three-bedroom apartment in Saint George, Utah, Daily Mail can reveal.
Twiggs showed police texts from Robinson about stashing a gun linked to Wednesday's shooting of the prominent conservative activist at Utah Valley University (UVU), a law enforcement affidavit said.
His identity was revealed as separate reports emerged from Fox and the New York Post which stated that Robinson was living with a 'transgender partner' who is co-operating with the investigation.
It is unclear if Twiggs is the same person referenced in the reports and he has not been named in the affidavit. His grandfather, Jerry Twiggs, told Daily Mail that he was unable to comment on rumors that he is trans and that there was a transgender motive to Kirk's murder.
'I don’t want to comment on that. I’m not sure what his situation is exactly right now,' he said, adding that he had never met Robinson.
Jerry also confirmed his grandson had been talking with the police, but that he had not spoken to him since.
'After he was with the police, he’s been at his house, and there’s no way for us to contact him other than going over there,' he said.
Authorities are yet to confirm a motive, but Utah Governor Spencer Cox told the Wall Street Journal that Robinson was, 'deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology'.
South Utah native, Twiggs, studied at Utah Tech University, according to his Facebook page. Robinson, 22, was also taking electrician training at a nearby technical college.
And like Robinson he was an avid gamer, posting shooting game videos on a TikTok account with the bio: ‘Becoming TikTok pros one terrible video at a time.’
He posted himself on social media playing popular games including Apex Legends, Valorant and Rocket League.
Other comical videos he shared included adding spaghetti to an Italian sandwich and microwaving a bottle of Mountain Dew.
Friends told Daily Mail that Robinson and Twiggs were part of a large group chat of dozens of gamer friends mostly from Robinson’s alma mater, Pine View High School, hosted on online chat network Discord.
Robinson’s alleged incriminating texts to Twiggs were also sent on Discord, according to the affidavit filed Friday.
Twiggs and Robinsons’ neighbor, Cable Phillips, 20, said police arrived at their two-story housing complex around 5.30am on Friday, and cordoned off the surrounding area.
Investigators were seen carrying out paper bags, envelopes, and a personal computer. A forensics team photographed the exterior and worked their way inside the property.
While they worked, neighbors stood behind police tape watching in the early morning desert sunshine.
Resident, Josh Kemp, 18, told The New York Times that Robinson would ‘always blast music with his roommate’ and ‘never talk to anybody’.
Oliver Holt, 11, told the paper that when he knocked on Robinson’s door last week asking for odd jobs, the alleged shooter was ‘acting pretty strange’ and kept glancing back into his apartment ‘acting kind of nervous and scared’.
A Zillow listing shows photos of Twiggs and Robinson's apartment at the Fossil Hills housing complex in Saint George, a 1,460-square-foot space with three beds and two baths.
The property listing said the ‘current owner has roommates bringing in a total of $900/month for just two of the bedrooms.’
An affidavit supporting the murder, obstruction, and felony firearm charges against Robinson described the roommate handing over bombshell text messages to police after the shooting.
Robinson sent messages to Twiggs, who was not named in the law enforcement filing, ‘stating a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point’, according to the affidavit by Utah Attorney General’s officer Brian Davis.
Robinson allegedly texted about ‘leaving the rifle in a bush, messages related to visually watching the area where a rifle was left, and a message referring to having left the rifle wrapped in a towel.’
‘The messages also refer to engraving bullets, and a mention of a scope and the rifle being unique,’ the affidavit said. ‘Messages from the contact Tyler also mention that he had changed outfits.’
Police said the descriptions matched what they had found: A Mauser .30-06 caliber rifle wrapped in a towel, abandoned in a wooded area near the Utah Valley University campus shortly after the shooting on Wednesday.
The affidavit does not accuse Twiggs of any involvement in the crime.
At his parents’ nearby home on Friday afternoon, Twiggs’s father Tyler said no one in the family would be commenting.
It appears Twiggs and Robinson became close after the alleged shooter graduated high school.
He received a $32,000 scholarship to Utah State University, but only attended one semester in 2021 as a pre-engineering major.
He later enrolled at Dixie Technical College in his home town of Saint George, which is in the extreme southwest of Utah, near the Arizona border, and was a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program, a statement by the college said.
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