Video/Pic: Elderly man falsely claimed to shoot Charlie Kirk to aid actual assassin

The elderly man who was quickly arrested in the aftermath of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk’s assassination and was later released last Wednesday has since been arrested and charged with obstruction of justice and possession of child sexual abuse material.

In a Tuesday press release, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that 71-year-old George Zinn was arrested and taken to the Utah Valley University Police Department last Wednesday after “yelling that he had shot Charlie Kirk” as people were fleeing the area where the 31-year-old conservative activist was shot. 

According to police documents obtained by Fox 13 News, Zinn approached a police officer after Kirk was shot and shouted, “I shot him now shoot me.” The outlet noted that while the police officer did not see a weapon, Zinn continued to shout, “I shot him now shoot me.” As a result, the 71-year-old was arrested by police officials.

The Utah County Sheriff’s Office explained that Zinn was not initially cooperative with law enforcement officials; however, he “did freely state that he was not the shooter but yelled he was to hinder Law Enforcement’s response” after he was transported to a hospital due to a “medical issue.”

“While Zinn was at the hospital, an FBI Agent and an Agent from the Utah State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) met with Zinn who agreed to speak with them concerning the matter,” the Utah County Sheriff’s Office stated. “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 indicated that the current evidence does not show a connection between Zinn and the actual assassination suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson.

After officials asked to examine Zinn’s phone while interviewing him at the hospital, the 71-year-old told them that he uses his phone to “view and abuse Child Sex Abuse Material and there may be some images on his phone.” Officials discovered multiple images of prepubescent girls scantily dressed. 

In a preliminary review of Zinn’s phone, officials discovered more than 20 pictures of children ages five to 12 in “various stages of undress and sexual posing.” Officials also found “very graphic sexual text threads” that Zinn used to share the images with other people.

The press release stated, “Zinn admitted to UCSO SVU 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 Utah County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Zinn remains in the Utah County Jail on a second-degree felony charge of obstruction of justice and four counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor.

A picture of Zinn has been shared on X, formerly Twitter, alongside a video of his initial arrest last Wednesday.