George Zinn, who allegedly fabricated a confession in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, has been arrested on charges of obstruction of justice and possession of child sexual abuse material, Utah authorities said.
Zinn, 71, was arrested at the scene of the September 10 shooting at Utah Valley University in Orem after shouting, “I shot him, now shoot me.” He later told investigators he faked the confession to help the real suspect—later identified as Tyler Robinson—escape, according to a probable cause statement.
Authorities said an investigation into Zinn led to the discovery of explicit material on his phone, including more than 20 images of children between the ages of 5 and 12. Court records also cite graphic messages in which Zinn admitted to being aroused by the material.
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, FBI agents interviewed Zinn at the hospital where he was taken after complaining of chest pain. During that interview, Zinn admitted to viewing child sexual abuse material and said he was “sexually aroused” by children.
Investigators reportedly found images of underage girls in their underwear on his phone.
It’s hard to say though.
I could see that, but also isn’t that hard to believe he was there to intentionally help distract after the shooting.
Or hard to believe he’s got some connections within the Republican party that would have allowed him to just walk away initially even though he had child porn on his phone.
I seriously doubt he had any connection to the shooter and was just seizing the opportunity to create confusion and disruption as that is his M.O. at public meetings and other events from what is being reported about him.
If you were going to assassinate someone and wanted to get away clean, collaborating with an associate whose job it is to take the blame and get arrested on the spot is just about the dumbest possible option since they could easily give you up while in police custody.
As far as the CP, police may have cloned the contents of his phone and not discovered it until later or perhaps they waited for the prosecutor to decide since the article mentions they were in their underwear in the images, which might not be so cut and dry.
Either way I still think all the publicity around this is just an attempt to save face after they looked like fools. They’re coming down hard on whomever they can to make themselves look less inept.