EXCLUSIVE: PANGUITCH, Utah — One of Tyler Robinson‘s last meals as a free man may have been at a roadside steakhouse off the beaten path, according to a Utah restaurateur who called in a tip to the FBI after news of the 22-year-old electrician’s arrest in the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
Staff at a mom-and-pop restaurant in Panguitch, Utah, about three hours south of the crime scene in Orem, said a customer who looked like Robinson had eaten alone at the counter on the night of the murder.
“So the gal that served him said that he was quite quiet, kind of shy,” the restaurant owner, who said he is not seeking attention about the encounter and asked not to be named, told Fox News Digital. “Usually, if somebody sits at our counter, they like to talk. And he sat on the counter and she said he really didn’t want to talk, just wanted to eat and get out.“
It was a very busy day, he noted, and there was a wait for regular tables at the time.
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“He had a steak — had a sirloin, medium rare,” he said. “Vegetables. Baked potato.”
The restaurant owner told Fox News Digital he is a huge fan of Kirk’s work and called the situation “a crappy deal all the way around.” He also has ties to some of Robinson’s relatives.
“It’s kind of hit a local chord because we’re pretty tight-knit,” he said. “His grandmother grew up here in town.”
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The next day, after Robinson’s arrest, his picture circulated widely.
“When they put a picture of the young man out there, I had a server say that they were relatively certain that they had had that person in that night — late,” the owner told Fox News Digital. “That was turned over to the FBI.”
The FBI called him back and asked for any information on the lone diner. Investigators interviewed the owner and two servers.
The card reader system at the restaurant doesn’t store the names from the cards if the user supplies a PIN, the owner said, and a camera over the cash register didn’t record the area where the lone diner was seated.
However, he was able to provide the FBI with the last four digits of the card used to pay for that steak and potato meal.
“That was the last I’ve heard of it,” he said. “I don’t know if the FBI found if it was conclusive if it was him or not.”
The FBI, which is typically tight-lipped regarding active cases, has not confirmed whether the number matches Robinson’s bank card.
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“The FBI followed through and did what they were supposed to, and that’s that,” the owner told Fox News Digital.
Panguitch is about 200 miles south of Utah Valley University, where Robinson is accused of firing a single shot from a .30-06 Mauser rifle from a rooftop, fatally striking Kirk.
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The 31-year-old father of two was answering a question from the audience at a Turning Point USA event when panic erupted.
Images from the scene show Kirk’s final moments and the crowd fleeing the campus courtyard. Surveillance cameras atop of the Losee Center building showed a man, later alleged to be Robinson, fleeing toward Campus Drive, dropping from the roof to a lawn and running into the surrounding neighborhood.
Police found the rifle wrapped in a towel in the woods, and authorities have said Robinson came back to the area, where he encountered a police officer manning the perimeter — but he was not deemed suspicious at the time because hundreds of people in the audience had dropped personal belongings as he fled.
However, text messages he shared with his lover and roommate, Lance Twiggs, show he discussed attempting to retrieve the rifle before he gave up and left.
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Fox News Digital previously obtained surveillance video from a Maverik gas station in Cedar City, along the path between UVU and his home in St. George in southwestern Utah.
The stop in Panguitch, if investigators have confirmed his debit card number matches, would show he took a meandering route and used back roads, rather than taking the interstate all the way back.
As for the restaurant, they’re hoping things quiet down.
“The staff that was involved, they were just trying to be good citizens, and they don’t really want to be hounded about it,” the owner said. “There wasn’t much conversation. There wasn’t anything more than they serve people. That’s their job, you know, and we’ve just, we’ve had a lot of weird calls and stuff over it.”
