George Zinn, 71, of Salt Lake City, was allegedly at the event where Kirk was fatally shot. As people were fleeing to safety, Zinn allegedly was seen “yelling that he had shot Kirk,” a press release issued by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.

Zinn was taken into custody by UVU police, where according to the release, he was not cooperative with law enforcement and declined to speak with investigators.

The sheriff’s office said Zinn began to experience some sort of medical issue and was transported to a nearby hospital. There, while speaking with federal and local investigators, he retracted his involvement in the shooting but allegedly said that he intentionally wanted to hinder law enforcement’s response to capture the actual suspected gunman, according to the sheriff’s office release.

“Zinn admitted that he had yelled that he was the shooter to allow the actual suspect to flee and to hinder law enforcement,” the Utah County Sheriff’s Office said in its release.

During a press conference with reporters Wednesday afternoon, just hours after the shooting, FBI officials and the Utah Department of Public Safety said Zinn had been taken into custody for the shooting and was later released after being questioned by law enforcement, but that he could face an obstruction of justice charge.

While agents from the FBI and Utah State Bureau of Investigation were speaking with Zinn at the hospital, they asked to look at the contents in his phone, which he agreed to, according to the release.

When investigators asked if they’d find anything illegal in his phone, Zinn allegedly mentioned “that he uses his phone to view and abuse child sex abuse material, and that would be on the phone,” a probable cause affidavit states.

Investigators discovered several inappropriate images of young girls on the device, according to the affidavit.

Utah County Special Victims Unit detectives obtained a search warrant for Zinn’s phone where more than 20 images of children between the ages of 5 and 12 that were sexual in nature were reportedly found on his device, the affidavit stated. The affidavit also noted allegedly numerous sexually graphic text threads in the phone where Zinn allegedly shared the images with other parties. 

“Zinn admitted to UCSO, SVU (special victims unit) investigators that he gets sexual gratification from viewing and sharing the CSAM images with others, and that his preferred victim age is 5 to 12-years-old,” the press release reads.

Zinn is currently being held in the Utah County Jail on suspicion of felony obstruction of justice, a second degree felony, and four counts of suspected felony sexual exploitation of a minor, also a second degree felony, according to the probable cause affidavit.

The Utah County Sheriff’s Office says at this time there is no information that Zinn actually colluded with the shooter.

On Friday, the sheriff’s office booked the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, into jail for allegedly killing Kirk.

Formal charges were announced against Robinson during a press conference on Tuesday, where Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.