Everyone has a theory for why Tyler Robinson allegedly shot conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
But top forensic psychiatrist Dr Carole Lieberman is cutting through the noise, telling the Daily Mail it was likely Robinson allegedly carried out the attack to protect his transgender partner.
She said: ‘Tyler’s partner was a man, transitioning to be a woman. Tyler believed Charlie was very anti-trans.
‘In fact, he allegedly shot Charlie right as he was answering a question about trans people being frequent mass shooters.’
She added: ‘So, he probably felt as if he was defending his partner’s honor by killing Charlie.’
Dr Lieberman, who has provided her expertise on numerous murder cases but is not involved in Robinson’s case and has not treated or examined him, said there is a history of men attacking and killing others to ‘defend’ or ‘avenge’ the perceived honor of a wife, girlfriend or family member.
In texts released by law enforcement, Robinson, 22, wrote to his partner Lance Twiggs, also 22, after the shooting: ‘I had enough of his [Kirk’s] hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out.’
He later wrote: ‘You are all I worry about love.’
Robinson has been arraigned on seven charges, including murder and witness tampering.
Moments before Kirk, 31, was shot, he was asked by an audience member: ‘Do you know how many transgender Americans have been mass shooters over the last 10 years?’
Kirk responded: ‘Too many.’
The Gun Violence Archive, an independent organization that tracks gun-related violence in the US,defines mass shootings as incidents in which there are ‘a minimum of four victims shot, either injured or killed, not including any shooter who may also have been killed or injured in the incident.’
Under this definition, there were 5,748 mass shootings between 2013 and 2025 according to the GVA.
Of those shooters, five have been transgender, GVA’s founding executive director, Mark Bryant, said.
Kirk was famous for his conservative Christian values and his outspoken views on transgender people, previously describing being transgender as a ‘mental delusion’ and saying ‘sex assigned at birth’ is a ‘logical fallacy’.
In September 2023, Kirk also referred to transgender people as a ‘throbbing middle finger to God’ and blasted transgender swimmer Lia Thomas as an ‘abomination’.
Robinson’s own sexuality is unclear, and Dr Lieberman said this may also have played a role in his state of mind and his motivation to allegedly carry out the attack.
While Lieberman said she doesn’t know Robinson’s sexuality ‘as a fact’, she thinks he may well be ‘some variation of LGBTQ+’.
She added, on the other hand, that it was also possible he could be an involuntary celibate, or incel, and a straight male who was dating a transgender person because he had struggled to date a biological woman.
Lieberman added that it is important to stress the overwhelming majority of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are not violent.
Robinson is from a Republican and Mormon background, which is historically not accepting of LGBT+ individuals.
Court documents state Robinson’s mother said her son would have heated arguments with his father over politics, with Robinson being more ‘pro-gay and trans rights’.
The Daily Mail has reported on Robinson’s complex porn search history, which revealed his alleged interest in furries, or human-like animal characters, explicit cartoons associated with pedophilia and women eating other people.
Kirk is also known for his views on gay rights, saying in a clip circulated on social media after the shooting that he doesn’t ‘agree with that lifestyle [of homosexuality]’.
Kirk had also argued against same-sex marriage, and previously slammed the LGBT+ movement as the ‘alphabet mafia’.
Dr Lieberman argued that the main motivation behind the attack was political, with Kirk being targeted because of his views.
Other psychiatrists, however, have argued the attack was not political, and instead claimed the alleged killer was motivated by a warped sense of reality and was possibly targeting Kirk because of his perceived success.
Robinson was registered as unaffiliated, had never voted, and had not joined a political party or campaigned previously in elections.
Dr Lieberman also suggested that gaming could have made Robinson more likely to commit violence, with his favorite games reportedly including violent shooting games Halo and Call of Duty.
She said: ‘Studies show that the more hours of media violence one consumes, the more aggressive they become.
‘As the former head of the National Coalition on TV Violence, I know this to be true.’
Dr Leiberman moreover drew links between Robinson and Trump’s first would-be assassin 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who attempted to shoot the then-presidential candidate in Pennsylvania last year.
She said: ‘In both cases, there is some rebelliousness against their parents.
‘With Crooks, both his parents were social workers, and with Robinson, his mother was a social worker, and there is a very interesting theory that the main motive in these attacks may be jealousy.
‘They may be jealous of the mother or father of them helping these other people and not paying attention to themselves.’
Robinson is next due in court on Monday, September 29. He has not yet responded to the charges against him.