With the arrest of a 22-year-old suspect in the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, attention is being passed on to which relative helped steer investigators towards the suspect and if they could be eligible for the seven-figure bounty reward pledged during the manhunt.
The FBI shared a reward of up to $100k for any kind of information that would lead to the identity of the shooter and theor possible arrest. At the same time, private pledges pushed the total on that offer to above $1 million.
There has been so far no official ruling on this payout but the FBI’s published rules don’t categorically bar relatives from getting publicity advertised rewards.
What does matter under such rules is whether the data provided by an eligible individuals would lead to the identification and arrest and if that person is not disqualified, most notably by being a goverment employee acting in an official capacity. The private funds, by contrast, is discreationary and governed by whatever terms that the donors ended up setting.
So far, no specific family member was outlined as the main tipster for leading to the arrest and neither has anyone come forward to submit a claim to receive that reward.
If such a claim does come into play soon, the FBI will work hard to evaluate if the data provided by the claimant directly gave rise to the results of the arrest and if the claimant falls into any excluded categories outlined.