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Sources: Man in Custody Confessed to His Father That He Shot Kirk. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 12, 2025 - 09:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That he was the shooter. His father told authorities and said he had secured his son until they could arrive to pick him up. Just your take on that fact, because it's fascinating to me what it could say about this suspect that it ended this way rather than as Davis was pointing out, it goes one of two ways. It goes like this or it ends up with a shootout?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yeah, it's really remarkable set of facts there, and there's a lot -- I guess there's a lot of room for interpretation into what secured his son means.

BOLDUAN: Right.

MCCABE: But it could be that he was not -- not fully on board with the idea of turning himself in yet, and it's possible his father took some steps to physically restrain him or, you know, just sat with him, counseled him, and -- and kind of stayed with him, occupied his attention and his time until the authorities could arrive. So, we'll -- I'm sure we'll find out the details of that eventually, but -- but likely not today.

So, it's just -- it's a heart -- you hear the details that are emerging, and what it paints is this heartbreaking picture of a parent trying to do the right thing, the right thing under the law, the right thing morally, which they know will have -- could have the absolute worst consequences for their own child.

So, it's just another chapter in the absolute tragedy, the tragic disaster of this whole -- of this attack. It's heart -- you know, it reminds me a lot, Kate, of the situation that led to the apprehension of the Unabomber so many years ago, right?

He had been living in isolation by himself, totally off the grid for years. He wrote that manifesto, sent it to the media. The bold decision was made to publish it exactly for the same purpose.

This was like a precursor to the idea of crowdsourcing when we didn't even know that word. It was, let's publish this thing because someone might recognize what he says in it, and that absolutely happened. The Unabomber's brother read the manifesto, was able to identify it as things that his brother had said to him in the past, and ultimately turned him into the authorities. So, it seems like a Hail Mary pass in each one of these cases, but boy, it really landed in this one. The crowdsourcing worked, and a family member stood up and did the right thing. So, it's -- it's dramatic, it's compelling, but we have to keep an eye on the fact that it's also a deep tragedy for yet another family.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We should note, we've now got a larger team here helping us cover this, joined at this very table with high- powered legal and investigatory help. John Miller, first to you. I saw you taking notes. It always makes me think you've got some new information on this.

BOLDUAN: I totally agree.

BERMAN: What do you got?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Nothing new. I mean, we're at a stage where we're waiting, but there -- there is a process, and there is some psychology behind this. You know, when this happened with a family member coming forward and saying, we think it's -- you know, our son, that harkens back to Luigi Mangione and the assassination of the UnitedHealthcare president.

We know the story of, you know, a woman in McDonald's who's a waitress, you know, calling police and saying there's two guys who say that looks like the guy. Much less attention to the wheels that we're turning in the background. His mother had reported him as a missing person in San Francisco because she couldn't get in touch with him. That picture was out there. Family members contacted San Francisco police who reached out to the San Francisco FBI that called the New York FBI, and they were actually working up the package on this Luigi Mangione as a possible suspect, a lookalike, and someone who had gone off the grid.

In a case like this, with the parents coming forward, the press conference last night, the image is going out, it becoming clearer and clearer, and we don't know what it was. Was it, you just know your son, even if he's wearing a hat and sunglasses? Did they say those are those gray Converse that, you know, he wears around the house? But was it -- what was going on in the background of his life?

But the information that he's made statements and admissions to police, you know, also fits in with there is a conflict among these actors, and you can go back through history with different shooters, snipers, assassins. They want to get away because nobody wants to go to jail. But there's another part of them that's usually fighting, which is they want to claim responsibility. We call it responsibility. They want to get credit for what they did. You know, they want to get credit for the planning, the execution, both literally and figuratively.

[09:05:00]

And, you know, that conflict is the kind of thing that plays into making them talk. What we're going to expect today, and this is, you know, more Elie's area because there's been some discussion this morning about, well, how much would they put out? How much should they put out? This is happening quickly, not investigation going on behind the scenes where they could go to a grand jury and secure an indictment.

We're going to see a complaint, whether it's a federal complaint or state complaint, and that is where they have to put in the key pieces of information, not all of it, but the most important parts to a judge to establish probable cause. So, we're likely to get a lot of detail.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yeah. So, first of all, I think the fact as we was being reported that this person made statements to the father is hugely significant because guess what? All of that is admissible against him in court. The second question, which John touched on, is if this person is making an additional statement now to the police, he's in custody, presumably, hopefully he's been given his Miranda rights before he made that statement to the police.

But you're building your case. Now, when somebody gets behind that podium, I think what they're going to do is probably certainly tell us where he's been charged, right? Could be state, could be federal, as we discussed earlier, could be both. Wouldn't surprise me at all if it's both simultaneous. You're allowed to do that legally. What he's been charged with.

And then there's the question of how much detail do they give us about their case? Typically in a scenario like this, especially a high- profile scenario, you'd give quite a bit. I think, excuse me -- I think --

BOLDUAN: As a prosecutor, are you happy with that, though?

HONIG: Yeah, I think, well, as a prosecutor, you would want nobody to say anything. But you have to be realistic here. There's such enormous public interest in this that I think they're going to want to assure us in the public that they have the right guy and that their case is ironclad.

So, I would look for a good bit of detail if they have a preliminary DNA match. I would expect them to say that. I would certainly expect them to say if the person has made admissions of guilt either to the police or to family members. I think we're going to learn all of this soon.

BOLDUAN: From what we know, obviously, we're about to learn a lot more. From what we know, how good is the case against this person?

HONIG: Well, it's going to depend, right? I want to see, do they have DNA? Do they have a ballistics match? We know they recovered the rifle.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, we haven't had the result of that, right? Like -- other than the question on what was engraved on these ballistics, right?

MILLER: The -- the thing with the rifle is they wanted to do all the other forensics on the rifle. The search for DNA, the search for skin cell DNA prints, which they didn't come up with before they did the ballistics part, because firing the rifle again, which is how you make that ballistics match, is going to alter your ability to collect those other things.

Suffice it to say, we expect that they've recovered the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk. We know that they've recovered a rifle that they think had something to do with it, and we know the shell casing is still in the chamber, and there's three additional rounds, which is where they recovered this writing.

The story of the gun, if it's not forensic, is going to trace to who purchased it when. It's an old gun. It's probably purchased a long time ago. That record may or may not be available. But where you have a family involved, they may say, that's Dad's old hunting rifle, or that was Grandpa's, or we know that weapon.

So, a lot of this is coming together right now. What's happening also right now is, this is not, they picked him up and brought him in. As Elie will tell you, there are multiple search warrants going on. Some of them are physical. They're going to be going through his home, his house, wherever he stays. They're going to be going -- these are also search warrants.

They'll get a search warrant for his Facebook, for his Instagram, for his phone, for his computer, and they'll be going through the contents of those the same way you would search a house. They'll look back through everything. All of those things will play into -- you know, the case that they're developing, and probably, because of the time it takes to do that, not play into the document we'll see today.

Today, will be the basic probable cause of two things. We think it's him, and here's why. Last night, the governor said something very interesting when he said, we're in the process of writing that complaint, throwing up these charges now, without a suspect, which is based on what occurred and how that's a violation of the law. It would be like a fill in the blanks once we figure out who that person is. So, they're building on that today.

BERMAN: I want to follow up with what John Miller was just talking about right there, about what's happening at this very moment. Let's just bring people back up to speed where we are right now. It is 9:09 Eastern Time.

There is a news conference scheduled, now delayed a bit, in Utah. FBI and state officials, we expect now, will announce what President Trump said just a few moments ago, that they have someone in custody in the investigation, this manhunt into the person who assassinated Charlie Kirk.

You see the words up there on the screen. The president said, I think we have him. CNN's reporting they do have someone in custody. We do believe it was the father who identified him in some of the photos or video that's been released.

[09:10:09]

BOLDUAN: And that the -- CNN's reporting sources say that the -- the suspect admitted to the father that he was the shooter.

BERMAN: Which could be crucial in terms of this prosecution and evidence collection.

I want to get back to Boston Police Commissioner -- former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. John Miller was just talking about what's happening right now. In addition to these people preparing whatever statement they're about to make publicly, and we're standing by for that, there are also very likely searches going on in a number of locations in Utah. Talk to us about the investigatory steps that must be happening.

ED DAVIS, LED BOSTON BOMBING MANHUNT AS POLICE COMMISSIONER: Sure, John. So, the first thing that happens is the writing of the search warrant. They'll certainly go up and secure any places that they know of, that they feel they want to search.

So, no one will be allowed in or out. The building will be evacuated at, say, his residence. And then they will stand by until a warrant issues from a -- from a court-accompanied jurisdiction. They will execute that search warrant, and they'll be looking for anything that might tie him to the crime. They'll be looking for DNA evidence. They'll be looking for individuals who may associate with the suspect.

And that will start a whole process of interrogations that will occur to anyone who was close to him, starting with the father, of course, because he has made statements to the father. But they'll look through all of the belongings of the individual. And most importantly, as John was saying, they're going to exploit his social media. They're going to get into his devices, and they will be able to really look at things that he's posted.

But more importantly, anything he's written down, anything even years ago in some cases, if it's on that device, they'll be able to find sometimes even if he deleted it. So -- so, there's a world of evidence there that -- that will likely tie him into extremist views or some written material that -- that is -- that will tie him in.

The most important thing, obviously, is making sure there's no more weapons or no explosives and trying to determine how far this plot, he wanted to go with this plot. You don't know whether this was a one-off and he was just targeting Mr. Kirk or he had larger aspirations. All of those things are extremely important to make things secure and also to try to develop the impetus behind this, the motivation.

BOLDUAN: Got our team coverage. You see some of some of our team who's working all of their sources in here to help us as we are preparing and waiting for this big press conference. It's going to be coming in minutes. It just delayed slightly. Let's get to the White House.

Alayna Treene standing by there. Once we heard the president announced this really on Fox News, now I'm going to say it was 30-ish minutes ago. What is the reaction that you're getting from inside the White House? Because as we were talking with you all throughout the morning of how hard the White House team and those inside the White House have been hit by this assassination of Charlie Kirk, what is the reaction you're getting now knowing that this has been -- that this is going to be announced?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, I would note too, I mean, both you and John have pointed out how kind of unusual it was for the president to -- to go on Fox News and share that they believe that they have the suspected killer in custody. I think part of that is he had said that he had just learned moments before, but I think it was important for him. I think he wanted to be the one to say, you know, the quote that we have is I think we have him.

I mean, this is so personal. I think it's important to keep this in mind. This is so personal for so many people in the White House and in the broader Trump administration, this press conference that everyone is waiting to be seen.

I mean, this is something that they are personally invested in. It is not just political for them. It is not just about, you know, having them wanting to do their jobs. I know over the past couple of days, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, so many people in the West Wing, the people who are closest to President Donald Trump, glued to their phones going through these messages.

I know that the president discussed the shooting with the vice president in the Oval Office, for example, where they were talking about what had happened. So, many people, the president included, constantly checking in for updates on this FBI investigation, wanting to be briefed, wanting to know every detail that they had about the manhunt that was going on, and of course now related to the suspect.

Because again, so many people had close relationships with him. Charlie Kirk was someone who a lot of people in this building behind me credit for helping the president win the election. He's considered family to a lot of these people, including the president's own son, Donald Trump Jr., as well as the Vice President, J.D. Vance.

[09:15:06]

And so, as I keep saying the word personal, it really is something that they have been very, very much committed to. And one thing that I keep hearing, Kate and John, in my conversations, particularly this morning, is that a lot of that -- that disbelief that they had been feeling, a lot of the shock and the grief is turning to anger. People are very, very angry about what happened, and a lot of people reflecting back, of course, on the assassination attempt, on the president's life when they were angry then.

People want answers. They want to see this person held to account. We heard the president this morning saying that he believes and he hopes that the killer ends up getting the death penalty in Utah. We are going to see similar things. I think the conversation, of course, once we hear more about the facts in the case, is going to be quickly turning to retribution and accountability. And so just keep that in mind.

But again, I think the word, just how personal this is for so many people, just how close the deep relationships that they had with Charlie Kirk is making this such a bigger moment for the White House than it would be typically.

BERMAN: Alayna Treene at the White House, we'll let you get back to reporting there.

Andy McCabe, I'm going to come to you in 30 seconds, I promise. But Alayna said something, and I think I want Elie's take on very quickly. The fact that the president of the United States is on television saying he hopes this individual gets the death penalty, as a legal matter, can that impact the case?

HONIG: Well, it could certainly be that -- there will be a motion made by a defendant eventually to dismiss charges because of unduly prejudicial publicity made by public officials. People do make that motion all the time, and it never, almost never succeeds. So, I wouldn't be worried that it's endangering the case, but it will give rise to a motion.

BERMAN: All right. And Andy McCabe, we are in these crucial minutes before this news conference that has been delayed, right? It was supposed to be at 9.

BOLDUAN: It's now scheduled. It's probably 10, 15 out.

BERMAN: 10, 15 out. You can see the setup right there. I suppose it is understandable that they need more time, given what is happening, given who's there. We know the FBI Director Kash Patel flew out overnight to the Utah area. Obviously, all the Utah officials have really been, I think, very helpful in helping us understand what's going on.

BOLDUAN: What they know and don't.

BERMAN: The Governor Spencer Cox, the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety. Just bring us behind the scenes at this moment with 10, 12 minutes to go before what will be a highly anticipated announcement. What's happening?

MCCABE: So, with these press conferences, John, you want to try to kind of orchestrate it as carefully and clearly as you can. And typically what you see in these things is the political representatives, whether that's the governor or the mayor of the city, whoever that might be. They typically talk first and briefly, and they don't discuss the details of the case.

That's been different in this case where, as you just mentioned, Governor Spencer Cox has been like really maybe the leading kind of voice for the case and the investigative team talking like down in the granular details about things.

Usually you set it up so that those kind of high-ranking officials come out, they make their very brief kind of top line remarks, and then you hand it over to the chief law enforcement official. And from the FBI's perspective, you really want that to be the local chief of police or sheriff or head of the state police, whoever it is, on scene from that state, that city, to be that person, to be that spokesperson. They're going to have to deal with this case every day for the next, who knows, few years as it makes its way through the prosecution. It's always better for the FBI to step back and let their state and local partners kind of have that moment. It's important to them.

It's important to the way they represent themselves to their community and the trust that their community has in them. I see we have someone there briefly. So -- so, typically the Bureau will wait until to speak in a second or third role, and then we'll address the federal kind of side of it.

Another change you might see in this press conference is we might for the first time see a federal prosecutor who comes in and essentially speaks on behalf of the FBI and kind of the federal side of any sort of prosecutions that go forward. From the prosecutor, you're typically going to get a much tighter, carefully worded recitation of the facts, and it'll be, as Elie said a few minutes ago, it's going to be mostly those facts that would go into the indictment or the affidavit that will support a complaint that charges this guy.

BOLDUAN: One thing. Let's bring Davis back in on this. And Ed, one of the things that I'm wondering how much you think it is a consideration here is, as John Miller was saying, some of the conflict in a perpetrator, someone that could be like this subject -- subject is not wanting to get caught, but also wanting to get credit.

[09:20:01]

If it is -- if it is the political motivations of it and why they committed this horrific, heinous crime. When you're -- when you're now at this point where they're going to make this announcement, no, this case is built against this -- against this man. How much do you try to control that to keep that to not allow them to have their, you know, manifesto put out there to be able to take that credit? How much can you control that, do you think?

DAVIS: Well, Kate, it's a very difficult proposition right now, because you want to try to control it completely for two reasons. One is you want to make sure that there is a pristine presentation of this evidence to the jury, and it's not affected by public opinion or public statements. The other is that you really want to try to not inflame passions right now. Like there's -- there's a very real stress in this country. And if he was writing very inflammatory statements, that's going to add to the discussion right now. So, you may want to keep that as close to the best as possible.

At the same time, people in the media are their job really is to get to the bottom of as much as they can as soon as they can. So, they will be pushing to get as much information out there as possible. And so, there'll be a push and pull there. It remains to be seen what will be released. But I think in a high-profile case like this, it will be more than you would see in an average homicide. The country needs to know what's going on within parameters. And it's a very, very delicate balancing act.

BERMAN: I think we should replay what has been made public already, which is what the president of the United States has himself said about the status of this investigation, the individual in custody and how he came to be in custody. So, let's listen to that quickly.

OK, we don't have it ready. John Miller, why don't you, very briefly, again bring us back up to speed about the chain of events that led to this moment that we're in right now?

MILLER: So, last night there in a press conference where they're putting out video, video that literally has nothing to do with being able to identify the person. But what it was meant to do was to increase the number of tips coming in by getting information that would draw people to the Web sites, the social media, the feeds where they were putting out those pictures and saying, look at these photographs, you know, which were right below the video.

And, you know, it appears that sometime yesterday this may have been one of those leads that was coming in that was in the giant stack of seven thousand leads or it may have come in overnight after the family watched that video.

But the father contacted authorities, we are told that's reporting from our Washington team and said, you know, my -- my -- I've confronted my son about this. He looks like the picture and he has told me it was him and basically held him for authorities. And that's where those wheels started turning.

What we don't know at this point is, as authorities have interviewed him, whether he has made similar admissions. But we do know that there's a big difference between this morning and last night. And the big difference is they told us over the last 24 hours we have, you know, a palm print.

OK, well, when you take somebody's fingerprints and you put them in, you know, the AFIS system and they have a record, you can run those prints, but you don't have the palm print. You have the fingers to match that. You need a person to compare it to.

If they recover DNA to match that, if it's not in the database and it doesn't appear this is going to be an individual with a significant criminal record, that's going to be in the database. So, now they have the ability to match their forensic evidence to a suspect on top of their old-style evidence, non-forensic. But the father saying he made these admissions to me, if in fact that's the case.

And then whatever he gives you when he sits down and as a couple of people have said today, he is likely at this point to feel a couple of a couple of different feelings. And one is that relief that he's not on the run. He's not hiding. And the other is that desire to say, yeah, it was me. And here's why.

So, any of those things could have been unfolding in the last few hours since we first heard about this, you know, at roughly 6 a.m. Utah time.

BOLDUAN: All right. We need to get in a quick break. We are standing by for this press conference now to start at any moment. Stay with us. If it starts, we will come out of the break to take you straight to that press conference with Utah officials, state officials, federal officials to get this what will be major updates on this manhunt for the killer of Charlie Kirk.

[09:25:10]

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: All right. We are following this major breaking news. We are standing by to hear from state and federal officials out of Utah. As you see on the banner right there, President Trump announcing in an interview earlier this morning that they believe they have the suspect in custody, the suspected killer of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

[09:30:05]

CNN also has reporting that they do have a suspect in custody being questioned.