Remember the First Man They Arrested After Charlie Kirk Was Shot? New Details About Him Are Disturbing.

In the initial melee that followed the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University one week go, the school announced that a suspect had been taken into custody. Images circulated on social media of an older man with a mostly bald head, white hair, and a blue shirt in handcuffs. A video then emerged of him seeming to urge police officers to shoot him. It very much looked like a confession. Within a few hours, however, authorities clarified that the individual in question was not, in fact, the shooter. Why was he detained in the first place? Why did he make that 'death wish' outburst? Those questions crossed many minds, I'd imagine, but other horrific events and developments quickly overtook that somewhat tangential curiosity. This week, we have learned the chilling back story about this bizarre -- and now quite disturbing -- element of that terrible day. The mistakenly identified shooter did not pull the trigger, but he instantly decided to do whatever he could to try and help the person who did:

George Zinn, the first man arrested in connection with Charlie Kirk's shooting death, tried to help the gunman escape, according to newly filed documents.

MORE: https://t.co/dlFSFNFmGq pic.twitter.com/ildt48b2uq
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) September 16, 2025

The first man arrested in connection with the deadly shooting of Charlie Kirk yelled, “I shot him, now shoot me” immediately after the shooting in an attempt to help the shooter escape, according to newly filed documents. George Zinn, 71, was taken into custody following the shooting, but he was later cleared on having any direct involvement with the shooting. He was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice...According to the affidavit of probable cause that was filed today, immediately after the shooting, Zinn allegedly walked up to a police officer and started yelling, “I shot him, now shoot me.” The officer could not see a weapon in his hands and placed him in handcuffs. The officer asked him where the gun was, and he reportedly said, “I am not going to tell you.” As he was transported to the UVU Police Department, he allegedly continued to say that he shot Kirk and to just shoot him. At the Police Department, Zinn was advised of his rights and asked for a lawyer. According to the affidavit, after he asked for a lawyer, without being asked any questions by investigators, he stated that he did not shoot Kirk and that he said he did to draw attention away from the real shooter...Zinn was later taken to the hospital because of a medical condition, and Zinn reportedly told an officer that he was glad he said he shot the individual so the real suspect could get away. He also said he “wanted to be a martyr for the person who was shot,” according to the probable cause statement.

Like so many other things about the evil act perpetrated against Charlie Kirk, this is deeply demented. This man witnessed a human being get shot in the neck, right in front of his eyes, during a political debate-style event. His immediate, and I mean immediate, instinct was to think, "I didn't do this, but whoever did could probably benefit from the distraction of my false confession." He then instantly acted on this deranged impulse. It very well may have helped the accused killer flee the scene. This person could very well be mentally ill. He's obviously very troubled. But this is another layer of evil that played on during a moment of profound evil. One wonders how many pro-violence leftists would applaud not only the shooter, but also his after-the-fact, on-the-fly, improvised accomplice. And as we noted yesterday, there is a growing and festering pathology of pro-violence support in our country today, disproportionately on the hard Left:

1 in 4 self-identified ‘very liberal’ respondents *volunteered* to this pollster their belief that political violence can sometimes be justified. These are the people who support CEO assassins, snipers who shoot bullets through opponents’ necks, and Hamas terrorists. https://t.co/nRTVqcNqci
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 16, 2025

We also covered how left-of-center Americans have been bombarded with so much misinformation about the shooter that a great many of them -- far more than those who responded to a poll on this point accurately -- think Charlie Kirk's assassin is a Republican. He is not, as yesterday afternoon's law enforcement press conference made even more undeniably clear:

At this point, anyone who suggests otherwise is brazenly lying, and should be regarded as such. https://t.co/XJxekjQ4CB
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) September 16, 2025

Again, the prevailing opposite-of-truth conspiracy theory has taken hold so deeply that it has congealed into a false, dangerous conventional wisdom, even within the supposed 'mainstream:'

The total fiction that Charlie’s assassin is a right winger (he’s a left-winger) has been swallowed whole across vast swaths of the Left — so much so that they’re self-righteously & falsely lecturing conservatives for understanding actual reality. Also, this is a “comedy” show: https://t.co/FueTpyWq95
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 16, 2025

I'll leave you with this, also courtesy of an ABC employee. What on earth?

🚨 WTF?! ABC News is GUSHING over the texts sent between Charlie Kirk’s kiIIer and his trans lover

“[The texts were] very touching, in a way, that… many of us didn’t expect.”

“He was speaking so lovingly about his partner”

These people are DERANGED pic.twitter.com/4jgzsrMK1Y
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 16, 2025

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