In the moments after Charlie Kirk was killed, a 71-year-old man yelled to police officers that he was the shooter, but he later explained that he had falsely confessed in order to help the real assassin escape, police said.

The man, a political gadfly named George Zinn, was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of justice, a felony, with police saying that he had delayed investigators’ hunt for the actual perpetrator.

Zinn was one of two people that police had detained for questioning Sept. 10 after Kirk was killed. They later determined that neither was involved in the killing, and the next day, they arrested a 22-year-old man, Tyler Robinson, on suspicion of murder.

Zinn’s detention at the scene of the crime may well have been consequential. Michael Dutson, a police officer at Utah Valley University, where the shooting took place, wrote in an affidavit that Zinn had approached him moments after the shooting — as thousands of students were running for cover — and said, “I shot him; now shoot me.”

Dutson said that he handcuffed Zinn and asked him where the gun was, but Zinn said he was not going to tell him. After taking him to the university police station, Dutson told Zinn that he did not think he was the shooter, and Zinn said he was going to be in trouble either way and that he would like a lawyer.

Zinn “stated he did it to draw attention from the real shooter,” the officer wrote in the affidavit, and later said that he was glad he had falsely confessed “so the real suspect could get away.” Police said there was no evidence that Zinn had colluded with the actual assassin.

The Utah County Sheriff’s Office said that police had taken Zinn to a hospital because of a medical issue and that, while there, he allowed officers to look at his phone. When he gave them the phone, he said the officers may find sexual images of children. He was additionally charged with four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a felony charge.

Videos posted on social media following the shooting showed police escorting Zinn away from the scene, his pants around his knees, as students screamed at him, assuming he was the assailant. The university’s police chief said that there were about 3,000 people at the event and only six university police officers monitoring the event, in addition to Kirk’s own security team.

On Monday, a judge ordered that Zinn be held without bail, finding that he was a “substantial danger” to the community. It was not clear from court records if Zinn had a lawyer, and a lawyer who previously represented him did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.

Zinn is well known among organizers of public events in Salt Lake City. He showed up frequently to public forums, often looking disheveled, with the intention to disrupt the event or question a high-profile speaker. He also has a long history of minor crimes, including an arrest in 2013 for sending a threatening email to the hosts of the Salt Lake City Marathon just days after the Boston Marathon bombing.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs/Kim Raff
c. 2025 The New York Times Company