Though US authorities now believe that Tyler Robinson was responsible for the murder of Charlie Kirk, when the incident happened last week, there was more than one shooter taken into custody.
One man, Michael Mallinson, was in Toronto, Canada, at the time of Charlie Kirk’s shooting, some 2,000 miles away. Despite that, his daughter quickly informed him that he was a leading suspect in the case. His picture was circulated all over Twitter, most of which was fabricated by accounts that mistook him for another man.
“I’m just shocked by it. How quickly it can happen, how one’s name and photo can get spread around quite quickly,” Michael told The New York Post.
The man actually dragged away by the police was George Zinn, and while he wasn’t the one who fired the fatal shot, he knowingly impeded the investigation nonetheless, the police have said. He is now facing a second-degree felony obstruction of justice charge.
District Attorney Sim Gill, who spoke to the Salt Lake Tribune, said George is a libertarian conservative who would “give me a hard time for being a Dem.”
“He’s a person who can be odd, and has those kinds of odd behaviour challenges,” he said, adding that George attends practically every political event in the area.
Credit: Fox13
He helped Charlie Kirk’s shooter escape
Last Wednesday, just moments after Charlie Kirk was killed at an American Comeback Tour event in Utah, 71-year-old George Zinn approached the police with a confession.
“I shot him, now shoot me,” he reportedly said, as per recently released police documents.
George was arrested on the spot, sparking the wave of pictures on Twitter that led to Michael’s misidentification, and he refused to answer questions about the location of the gun. No weapon was found at the scene, nor on George’s person. When being taken away by the officers, he added, “Just shoot me.”
Once he was in custody, Charlie Kirk’s so-called shooter lawyered up. He eventually admitted to not being the shooter, revealing that he’d made the claims “to draw attention from the real shooter.”
Credit: Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office
Police said that George’s false confession impeded the investigation, meaning resources were spent on him and not on looking for the real culprit.
22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested after a state-wide manhunt, and according to CBS, he admitted to the crime in a Discord server.
“It was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all of this,” reads the alleged message.
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Featured image credit: Charles McClintock-Wilson/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
