“He said, ‘Hey, I know who the Charlie Kirk shooter is. I know the family through religious association, and he’s in Washington County now, and we’re working on trying to get him to come in voluntarily,'” Brooksby said.

Tyler Robinson, Kirk’s suspected killer, was then driven to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office that night by the former detective, and later picked up by lead investigators and transported to Utah County, Brooksby said in a news conference Wednesday.

Brooksby detailed a capture that required delicacy, because Robinson had some “suicidal ideations” and feared a SWAT team would invade his house or that he would be shot by police.

The sheriff said Robinson’s parents conveyed that they would “stand by him and help him” if he surrendered peacefully, and that authorities agreed to make it a comfortable exchange.

When he arrived at the sheriff’s office, Robinson was placed uncuffed on a couch next to his parents, given a bottle of water, and left unquestioned for two and a half hours until lead investigators arrived to pick him up.

“Concessions were made to make (the surrender) happen,” Brooksby said. “Peaceful surrender, make him comfortable. He was accused of a horrific crime, but we were treating him very civilly, very humanely. And that’s just part of the job. We do that on a regular basis, try to make people comfortable so they’re relaxed and not bombard them with negativity.”

Brooksby described the proceedings as a “really long agency assist,” and said the capture came without any prior knowledge that the shooter was in the southern Utah area.

“Most people that are involved are accused of things like that, they want to get out of the area as soon as possible,” Brooksby said. “So the fact that he came home was part of the shock factor.”

Equally surprised, Brooksby said, was Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, who he called immediately after learning of Robinson’s whereabouts.

“After about 40 seconds, Sheriff Smith was like, ‘Wait, what are you talking about?'” Brooksby said. “So he was as shocked as I was to hear the news, and so I repeated myself. He said ‘How credible is it?’ I said, ‘I trust this guy that called me with my life, and I think it’s time you need to get your people, the lead investigators headed to Washington County.'”

Brooksby expressed to reporters Wednesday his surprise that such a high-profile political assassination had such local ties.

“He happened to go to the same high school here in Washington County (as I did),” Brooksby said. “So it’s a double shock factor. That one, it happened in Utah, and that the suspect happened to be a homegrown Washington County boy.”

The sheriff also addressed some false rumors that have circulated.

The former detective, he said, was not the family’s bishop or another church leader.

“Unfortunately, the bishop of that ward has been dragged into it because of some media reporting, but that’s not accurate,” Brooksby said.

The sheriff also said there were false reports that a retired corrections deputy named Matt Robinson — who shares a name with the suspected killer’s father — was the suspect’s father and that he “physically put handcuffs on his son, the suspect, and brought him into jail.”

“That’s completely false. … I want to make sure that we’re walking that back as best we can,” Brooksby said. “Because Matt Robinson, my retired deputy, has been harassed. He’s had to leave his house at this point.”

Brooksby added that Tyler Robinson’s parents need to “lay low for a long time, unfortunately.”