About two minutes after a single shot killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk on Utah Valley University campus on Sept. 10, UVU Police detective Michael Dutson took 71-year-old George Zinn into custody.
Zinn has now been charged in Utah’s 4th District Court with one count of obstruction of justice and four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. He will appear again in court virtually on Wednesday.
Immediately after Kirk was shot, Zinn approached Dutson and said, “I shot him, now shoot me,” according to court documents.
Dutson took Zinn into custody and asked him where the gun was. Zinn replied, “I am not going to tell you where it is. I shot him, now shoot me,” according to court documents.
Police say Dutson searched Zinn and the surrounding area, but he didn’t find a gun. Dutson then took Zinn to the Utah Valley Police Department and attempted to interview him, according to court documents.
In a probable cause affidavit submitted by Dutson, the detective recalled, “Before advising him of his right, he stated he wanted an attorney. At that point I advised George I did not think he was the one who did the shooting. But since he told me he wanted an attorney, I could not talk to him.”
The affidavit says Zinn then said he did not shoot Kirk and that “(h)e did it to draw attention from the real shooter.”
Zinn was transported to the Utah Valley Regional Medical Center for chest pain, according to police. During this time, Zinn told the officer with him he was glad he said he shot Kirk “so the real suspect could get away,” court documents say. Zinn also allegedly told the officer that “he wanted to be a martyr for the person who was shot.”
There is currently no evidence that Zinn “colluded with the shooter,” Utah County Sheriff’s deputies said.
Text messages allegedly sent between Kirk’s killer Tyler Robinson and his roommate reference Zinn. In the messages, Robinson’s roommate reportedly said, “I thought they caught the person?” and Robinson responded, “They grabbed some crazy old dude.”
Zinn faces charges for over child exploitation material on his phone
At Utah Valley Regional Medical Center, when FBI agents asked to look at Zinn’s phone, he warned them that they might find sexually explicit photos of minors, the Utah County Sheriff’s office said.
Agents did come across several explicit images, court documents say.
Utah County Special Victims Unit detectives then stepped in and obtained a search warrant. They found over 20 sexually explicit images of children ranging from 5 to 12 years old, police say.
They also found “very graphic sexual text threads in which Zinn shared the images with other parties,” court documents say.
Zinn’s long history of arrests
In the months following the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, Zinn was charged with making a threat of terrorism in an email, after he asked if Salt Lake City Marathon organizers “needed anybody to help place bombs near the finish line.”
Zinn is a registered Republican and has an active voting record, KSL reports. Over the past three decades, Zinn has attended many political events and has been arrested “numerous times” for trespassing in political spaces.
Utah Republican Party Chairman Robert Axson released a statement, saying, “George Zinn will not be welcome at any Utah Republican Party event,” if he is ever released from jail.
Axson added, “There is no excuse for Zinn’s actions. He abused the patience of Utahns, added to the evil seen in our state, and obstructed law enforcement. His possession of child abuse material is reprehensible and demands punishment.”