‘This is our moment. Do we escalate, or do we find an offramp? It’s a choice’ — Gov. Cox reacts to Charlie Kirk shooting

OREM, Utah (ABC4) — In a press conference on Friday morning, Gov. Spencer J. Cox said that the Charlie Kirk shooter is in custody.

“We got him,” said Gov. Cox.

According to Cox, the suspect, Tyler Robinson, 22, is from Utah, but is not a Utah Valley University student. Robinson has been booked into Utah County Jail.

Gov. Cox: ‘Every life taken is a child of God’

During the press conference, Gov. Cox acknowledged that there is violence all over the United States of America.

“Violence is tragic everywhere. And every life taken is a child of God who deserves our love and respect and dignity,” said Gov. Cox.

Gov. Cox said that while the press conference was about the assassination of Kirk, “it is also much bigger than an attack on an induvial, it is an attack on all of us. It is an attack on the American experiment.”

He added that the political violence is different than any kind of violence.

“We will never be able to solve the other problems, including the violence problems, if we can’t have a clash of ideas, safely,” said Cox. “Especially those ideas with which you disagree.”

Cox said that he believes that this attack may prevent other American’s from utilizing their freedom of speech. However, he quoted Charlie Kirk as response to that concern: “When people stop talking, that’s when you get violence.”

Gov. Cox also spoke to the young people in America during the press conference.

“You are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage. It feels like rage is the only option. But through those words we have a reminder that we can choose a different path.”