By Lauren Mascarenhas, CNN

(CNN) — After prominent political activist Charlie Kirk was killed at a speaking event at a Utah university last week, an intense, 30-plus-hour manhunt for a suspect in the shooting ended with him peacefully surrendering at a local sheriff’s office, accompanied by his parents.

News of Kirk’s killing quickly went global, and the FBI released images of the suspect, asking for the public’s help in their search.

Tyler Robinson’s mother saw those images on the news the day after the shooting, and noticed a resemblance to her son, according to court documents.

When she called her son to ask about his whereabouts, he told her he was home sick and had been home sick the day before as well. He lived in an apartment in St. George, not far from his parents.

Still, she was concerned. The suspect in those images looked like her son, and when she showed her husband, he agreed.

That would set off a series of events in which his parents and a family friend persuaded him to surrender to authorities the day after the killing, according to charging documents filed in state court Tuesday. Robinson, 22, was charged with aggravated murder and other offenses in the September 10 shooting at Utah Valley University, and prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty.

On September 11, when Robinson’s parents noticed the resemblance their son bore to the person of interest on their screens, his father noticed something else: the rifle police believed was used to kill Kirk seemed to match one that Robinson had been gifted. He reached out to his son and asked him to send him a photo of that rifle, according to the court documents.

Texts between Robinson and his roommate – who would later share them with police – indicate he knew his father was trying to contact him, prosecutors allege.

“My dad wants photos of the rifle … he says grandpa wants to know who has what, the feds released a photo of the rifle, and it is very unique. Hes calling me rn, not answering,” Robinson texted his roommat?e, according to the charging document.

Eventually, Robinson’s father got his son on the phone, and the young man “implied” that he planned to die by suicide, the court documents state. His parents convinced him to meet at their home in the St. George area.

At their home, “Robinson implied that he was the shooter and stated that he couldn’t go to jail and just wanted to end it,” the documents state.

They asked their son why he would do it.

Robinson explained that “there is too much evil and the guy (Kirk) spreads too much hate,” according to the court documents.

They discussed the prospect of Robinson turning himself in and encouraged him to talk to a family friend who used to work in law enforcement. Robinson’s father asked that friend to meet with his son, the documents state.

A call from an old friend

Around 8 p.m. that day, Washington County Sheriff Nate Brooksby received a call.

It was an old friend, a retired detective who had worked for him for many years, Brooksby later told reporters in a press conference. It was the same person Robinson’s parents had called to talk to their son – and his voice was shaking.

“My first thought is, who died?” Brooskby, whose jurisdiction includes St. George, said. “I couldn’t fathom what actually came out of his mouth.

“He said, ‘Hey, I know who Charlie Kirk’s shooter is.’ ”

Brooksby knew this was legitimate – he trusted this friend with his life, he said.

Brooksby’s friend explained that he knew Robinson’s family through religious associations, and they were working on getting him to turn himself in, the sheriff said.

Immediately after that conversation, Brooksby said, he phoned Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, who was running the investigation into the shooting.

“I’m confident we have the shooter in Washington County. We’re working on getting him to come in and surrender at my office,” Brooksby said he told Smith.

Smith was so stunned by the news that Brooksby had to repeat himself, he said.

Within the hour, Robinson arrived at Brooksby’s office, escorted by his parents and family friend, where they were greeted by plainclothes detectives, Brooksby said.

With his image on the news amid the intense manhunt, Robinson knew it was “inevitable” that he would be caught, but he was afraid that he would be shot by law enforcement or that there would be a SWAT team hit on his house, Brooksby said. Getting him to come in required a bit of negotiating.

Part of that negotiation was that Brooksby’s office would make the process as “relaxed and comfortable” as possible – “inviting,” even, he said.

It may seem odd, Brooksby said, to treat someone accused of a deadly crime with such civility, “but that’s just part of the job.” And it works better than a “hammer-fist” or “storm-trooper” approach, he noted.

“If at the end of the day we accomplish him surrendering peacefully on his own, I’m going to make some concessions to make that happen,” he said.

Then it was a waiting game until the lead investigators on the case arrived, Brooksby said. His office did not question Robinson, but instead kept him comfortable. Unrestrained, he sat on a couch in a room with his parents, as officers offered him water while they waited for the next couple of hours, Brooksby said.

By about 2 a.m., Robinson was driven to Utah County, where he would be charged.

Brooksby said he was left feeling shocked that the intense manhunt that made international headlines ended in his office, with a “homegrown Washington County boy.” He recalled attending high school in the county – the same school that Robinson later attended.

Robinson had mentioned Kirk before, his mother told authorities.

Over the last year, she said, Robinson “had started to lean more to the left,” politically, becoming a proponent of gay and transgender rights. His mother said he was dating his roommate, who prosecutors described in court documents as “a biological male who was transitioning genders.” Robinson discussed this with his father, who held very different political views, his mother told authorities.

Kirk was a critic of transgender rights and frequently sought to rally young people around traditional gender roles.

Kirk spread hate, Robinson told his family members before the shooting, mentioning the Utah Valley University event Kirk was scheduled to speak at and calling the venue “stupid,” the court documents note.

“I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I’m going to take it,” Robinson wrote in a note left in his home, prosecutors allege in the charging documents.

The Washington County sheriff credited his friend and former colleague with creating enough trust in his community that Robinson’s parents felt comfortable seeking his help.

“They trusted that they could go to this individual and he could contact me directly, and that we could facilitate a peaceful, calm, relaxed surrender,” Brooksby said.

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CNN’s Taylor Romine, Matt Stiles and Gillian Roberts contributed to this report.