A police mugshot shows Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox made a plea to young Americans, asking them to reject violence in the wake of the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk after authorities announced that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson was arrested in what the governor called a "political assassination."

Speaking at a Sept. 12 news briefing in which he named Robinson, a Utah resident, as the shooter, Cox called Kirk's killing an "attack on the American experiment."

In a news conference that took on the mood of a sermon or a eulogy for the slain conservative organizer, Cox all but begged his countrymen to turn away from angry division.

"To my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage, it feels like rage is the only option," Cox, a Republican, said.

Through Kirk's encouragement of "reasonable agreement," Cox said, "we have a reminder that we can choose a different path."

Quoting the slain organizer, Cox said: "When people stop talking, that's when you get violence."

"He said," Cox added, "'The weak can never forgive.'"

Kirk was well-known for holding debates on college campuses around the country with young people on the political left. He was shot dead during an event at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10, kicking off a social media firestorm and a manhunt for the suspected killer.

"Young people love Charlie. And young people hated Charlie," Cox said, returning time and again to the need for dialogue between opposing political camps. "And Charlie went into those places anyway."

Cox said he was "praying" that the shooter was not a Utah native – "that it wouldn't be one of us." But he praised the reactions in the wake of the shooting from natives of Utah, where he said "there was no rioting, there was no looting, there were no cars set on fire."

"We can always point the finger at the other side," Cox said. "At some point we have to find an off ramp, or it's going to get much, much worse."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'A different path.' Utah Gov. Spencer Cox gives passionate plea for dialogue after Kirk killing

Reporting by Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect