The Utah County Sheriff’s Office announced at 9:45 a.m. MDT that on Wednesday, September 10, 2025 at Utah Valley University, George Hodgson Zinn was attending an event where a shooting occurred. Shorty after that shooting occurred, and while people were fleeing the area, Zinn was seen yelling that he had shot Charlie Kirk. UVU Police took Zinn into custody and transported him to the UVU Police Department. At that time, Zinn was not cooperative with law enforcement officers, and did not want to speak with investigators. Zinn began to have a medical issue and was transported to a local hospital that was not disclosed by the sheriff’s office. While at the Hospital, Zinn did freely state that he was not the shooter, but yelled he was to hinder Law Enforcement’s response.
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. Zinn admitted that he had yelled that he was the shooter to allow the actual suspect to flee and to hinder law enforcement. During the interview, the agents asked to look at Zinn’s phone and Zinn agreed to let them. Zinn told the agents that he uses his phone to view and abuse Child Sex Abuse Material and there may be some images on his phone. Those agents did see several images on the phone of prepubescent girls scantily dressed.
At that time, Utah County Special Victims Unit Detectives were asked to take the matter over, as the other agents were needed to help with the UVU incident. On Monday, September 15, 2025, a search warrant was obtained, by UCSO SVU Investigators, for Zinn’s phone. During a preliminary review of the phone, UCSO SVU Investigators did view over 20 images of children ranging from 5 to 12 years-old in various stages of undress and sexual posing. There were several very graphic sexual text threads in which Zinn shared the images with other parties. Zinn admitted to UCSO SVU Investigators that he gets sexual gratification from viewing and sharing the Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) images with others, and that his preferred victim age is 5 to 12 years-old.
George Zinn is currently being held in the Utah County Jail with the following charges …
2nd Felony Obstruction of Justice
2nd Felony Sexual Exploitation of a Minor (4 counts)
At this time, there is no information that George Zinn actually colluded with the shooter. Zinn was in attendance and intentionally yelled he was the shooter and by doing so, obstructed law enforcement officers from focusing on the actual shooter.
The investigation into the CSAM material is on-going.
George Zinn’s bond status is non-bailable, according to the Utah County Sheriff’s Office.
George Zinn is 5’08” 202 LBS
Has brown eyes and gray hair
George Zinn was born in Greece in 1954.
^^ MOBILE? USE VOICE MIC ^^
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