A 22-year-old from Utah has been arrested over the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, who was shot dead while on stage at a university event earlier this week.
Tyler Robinson was taken into custody late on Thursday after a 33-hour manhunt that ended after his father helped persuade him to surrender to police.
His arrest was first announced by President Donald Trump, who called for the suspect to face the death penalty.
The killing of Kirk, who was shot while debating students on Wednesday, has shocked Americans and laid bare the country's sharp partisan political divisions.
At a news conference on Friday, investigators said the suspect confessed to his father and said he would rather take his own life than surrender. The father then called a youth pastor who is a family friend.
Both men tried to calm the suspect down, police said. The pastor, who also serves as a court security officer, later called the US Marshals who detained the suspect at around 22:00 local time on Thursday.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said surveillance images showed Robinson arriving on the campus of Utah Valley University around four hours before a shot rang out, killing Kirk and sending students running for cover.
The governor told journalists that when he was taken into custody, he was wearing clothing similar to what was seen on CCTV cameras at the scene of the shooting.
Cox added that investigators had interviewed a family member who said the suspect had become more political in recent years.
Cox said the family member had spoken of a recent incident when Robinson had mentioned that Kirk was coming to Utah and that he was full of hate and spreading hate.
Investigators had also spoken to a roommate of the suspect who had shown them messages with an account named Tyler on the messaging app Discord that referred to a need to retrieve a rifle from a drop point and the rifle being left in a bush, wrapped in a towel.
The FBI said on Thursday they had found the suspected weapon - an imported Mauser .30-06 bolt action rifle - wrapped in a towel in a wooded area near campus.
Inscriptions had been found engraved on casings recovered with the rifle, which had a scope mounted on top of it.
Students at Utah Valley University expressed relief at the arrest after the campus had been closed since the shooting.
Robinson, a third-year student in an electrical apprenticeship program living in St. George, Utah, is set to face charges including aggravated murder.
