The man accused of fatally shooting Charlie Kirk wrote a note before the shooting that said he had an opportunity to take him out and was going to make use of it, the director of the FBI said Monday.

The director, Kash Patel, said DNA matching that of suspect Tyler Robinson was found on a towel wrapped around the bolt-action rifle that was believed to be used in the shooting as well as on a screwdriver that was found on the rooftop where the fatal shot was fired.

Patel Makes Revelations on ‘Fox & Friends’

Speaking on the “Fox & Friends” television show Monday morning, Patel said that Robinson had suggested before the shooting that he was going to kill Kirk, in a text message exchange and in a written note. He said that the note was destroyed but that authorities were able to reconstruct it.

It was unclear to whom the text message was sent. Patel did not say how the physical note had been destroyed or if anyone other than the suspect knew about it or had seen it before the shooting.

The killing of Kirk, 31, a right-wing activist, stunned the nation last week, when he was struck by a single gunshot while speaking to an audience of students at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah. Authorities began an intensive search, and Robinson turned himself in about 30 hours after the shooting at a sheriff’s office near his home in southwestern Utah, more than 250 miles from the campus.

Motive for Killing Sparks Torrid Debate

The motivation for the shooting has been fiercely debated, with investigators and civilians alike scouring the suspect’s online presence and trying to gather information from his friends and relatives.

Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah, a Republican, and Patel have said people who know Robinson have told investigators that he subscribed to what the two men called left-wing or leftist ideology.

Cox has said that the suspect was a normal young man who became “radicalized” after dropping out of college and that his family was conservative.

The governor also said that a person who was initially described as a roommate of Robinson’s was actually his romantic partner and that the person was transitioning from being a man to being a woman. That person, the governor said, has been cooperating with the investigation and was “shocked” by the killing.

Robinson Had No Previous Criminal History

Friends have described Robinson as a very smart, if somewhat quiet, person who enjoyed playing video games and took an interest in current events. He was registered to vote but unaffiliated with any political party, and he had no previous criminal history.

Messages that the suspect sent after the shooting, which were obtained by The New York Times, showed that he joked with friends about the fact that he resembled the person being sought by the FBI. He said in the messages that his “doppelganger” was trying to “get me in trouble,” and joked that he needed to “get rid of this manifesto and exact copy rifle” that he had lying around.

On Thursday, about nine hours after sending those messages, he turned himself in after his father recognized him in higher-quality images released by authorities.

During the TV appearance Monday, Patel promised that no one at the FBI would politicize the investigation. He has faced criticism for posting on social media soon after the shooting that a “subject” had been apprehended; in fact, that person had nothing to do with the shooting and was quickly released.

“Could I have worded it a little better, in the heat of the moment? Sure,” Patel said Monday about his post. “But do I regret putting it out? Absolutely not. I was telling the world what the FBI was doing.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs/Loren Elliott

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