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Burgundy Shirts at UVU — A Color-Coded Crowd?

Overhead still of a UVU sidewalk on September 10, 2025: two men boxed in red, each in a burgundy T-shirt, shorts, black backpack and cap

"Who are these decoys?" Two men on the UVU campus, each in a burgundy shirt, shorts, a black backpack and a cap. Source: @kiddkainmusic on X, September 28, 2026.

The UVU courtyard on September 10, 2025 was packed. Look across the photographs and phone videos from that day and one pattern keeps coming back. There are an unusually high number of men in burgundy shirts. They often wear shorts, often carry black backpacks, and often wear caps. On September 28, 2026, @kiddkainmusic posted two of them in a single frame with one question: "who are these decoys?" The post drew about 900 likes and 140 reposts in its first hours.

The pattern investigators describe​

  • Burgundy or maroon T-shirts. It is not TPUSA's bright red "American Comeback" merchandise. It is a darker, plainer, wine-colored shirt with no logo.
  • Often with shorts. Light or dark athletic shorts, not jeans.
  • Often with black backpacks. A backpack big enough to carry something.
  • Often with hats. Dark ball caps that shade the face from overhead cameras.

In a crowd of about 3,000 you would expect some maroon shirts. What investigators flag is how often the same full outfit turns up: burgundy, shorts, backpack, cap, all together. They also flag where it turns up: on the walkways, on the lawn right after the shot, and in the footage the government later used to build its case.

Why a color? The tradecraft argument​

Citizen investigators suggest that large surveillance and protective operations assign colors. Each team wears its color so that members can spot one another across a crowd, and so that a controller watching a camera feed can direct "the burgundy team" without a radio call anyone can overhear. A crowd also hides a lookalike. If several men wear the same outfit as the one person the cameras are meant to follow, footage of "the suspect" becomes ambiguous, and it becomes easy to select.

On this reading, burgundy looks like the color that was chosen for UVU. This is an inference from what the photographs show. No agency has confirmed any color-coding, and no one in these images has been identified as working for any service. It sits alongside the other presence indicators in this section, such as the foreign phones at UVU and the Egyptian government jets at Provo. Candace Owens's threads about maroon shirts and the Egyptian contractors were among the topics that reportedly triggered mass X suspensions.

"Tyler" switches into burgundy​

The most striking part is that the man presented as Tyler Robinson wears the same color. According to the state's own charging documents, the figure on camera at 8:07 to 8:29 a.m. wore a plain maroon T-shirt, light shorts, a black backpack and a black cap, which is the burgundy-team outfit exactly. By 11:49 a.m. the figure is in a black long-sleeve flag shirt and jeans. At the Orem Dairy Queen at 6:38 p.m., and again at the Washington County Sheriff's Office that night, he is back in a maroon T-shirt. The charging document itself says he "was not wearing clothing consistent with the clothing observed on surveillance cameras."

Investigators ask why a real fleeing shooter would keep changing back into the one color that half the campus footage shares. They also ask whether this was the real Tyler Robinson at every point, or a lookalike dressed to blend in with a burgundy-shirted group. The full outfit sequence is set out in Robinson's clothing changes and the 25-hour day. Robinson is charged, not convicted, and has not been tried.

The man in maroon running on the lawn​

TMZ and citizen collages set the 8:07 a.m. walkway figure next to a man in a maroon shirt running across the lawn seconds after the shot, circled in the crowd footage below. Under the official timeline Robinson was on the Losee Center roof in black clothing at that moment. So the runner in maroon on the grass cannot be the man on the roof. At least two different men in the same burgundy outfit were in the courtyard at 12:23 p.m. The eyewitness accounts of a black-clad fugitive add a third outfit to the same few minutes.

Burgundy across our photo archive​

We searched the full image archive (about 2,700 images) for people in burgundy, maroon or dark-red shirts. We left out bright-red TPUSA merchandise, red MAGA caps, and anything outside the case. These are the clearest results. Each card opens that image's own page.

TMZ side-by-side: 8:07 AM figure in a dark reddish-maroon T-shirt and shorts on a UVU walkway, next to the 11:49 AM figure
8:07 a.m.: maroon shirt, shorts, black backpack, cap. At 11:49 a.m.: all black. Full write-up →
Overhead walkway frames at 8:07 AM and 11:49 AM, the first figure in a maroon-red T-shirt and dark shorts
The same overhead camera: burgundy and shorts in the morning, black by late morning. Full write-up →
Walkway figure in a dark reddish-maroon short-sleeved T-shirt with backpack, inset portrait in a matching maroon shirt
Walkway figure matched to a portrait in the same maroon shirt. Full write-up →
Cropped surveillance frame of a man in a dark reddish-maroon T-shirt, black backpack and dark cap
Close crop showing the full outfit: burgundy, backpack, cap. Full write-up →
Doorbell-camera frame of a man in a maroon T-shirt, dark shorts and backpack crossing a residential street
Neighborhood doorbell camera: maroon shirt, shorts, backpack. Full write-up →
Man in a maroon short-sleeved T-shirt, shorts and blue backpack walking on a sidewalk
Another street camera, the same burgundy-and-shorts outfit. Full write-up →
Collage: 8:07 and 11:49 AM walkway frames above a crowd shot with a circled runner in a maroon shirt on the lawn
A man in maroon running on the lawn after the shot, circled. Full write-up →
Two frames of the UVU lawn: an officer with evidence marker circled, and an arrow following a running figure in a dark red shirt
The lawn runner in dark red, tracked with an arrow. Full write-up →
Side by side: 8:07 AM walkway figure in burgundy, and a man in a burgundy crewneck and shorts crossing the lawn
Two burgundy figures side by side: the morning walker and the lawn runner. Full write-up →
Project Constitution post with eyewitness photos of a figure in a plum-colored shirt, dark shorts, black hat and backpack
Eyewitness set: "plum color shirt and dark color shorts with a black hat… and backpack." Full write-up →
Crowd of young men near a UVU building; a tall man in a maroon T-shirt with a backpack and cap stands on a raised ledge
A different man, the same kit: maroon, backpack, cap, standing above the crowd. Full write-up →
Post tagged #MaroonTshirtGuy: four frames of a young man in a maroon shirt filming near the tent
"#MaroonTshirtGuy": another man in maroon near the tent, not Tyler Robinson. Full write-up →
Phone video still captioned 'In the tunnel right after!' showing a man in a maroon shirt among the crowd
"In the tunnel right after": another maroon shirt in the crowd. Full write-up →
Dairy Queen security still at 6:38 PM: young man in a dark red T-shirt and cap at the counter
6:38 p.m., Orem Dairy Queen: back in burgundy. Full write-up →

What would settle it​

  1. The complete, unedited UVU camera footage from 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., so that every burgundy-shirted man can be counted and followed.
  2. The FBI's list of the people it identified in that footage, and whether any of them were law enforcement, contractors, or foreign nationals.
  3. A frame-by-frame comparison of the 8:07 a.m. walker, the lawn runner, and the 6:38 p.m. Dairy Queen customer. Are they one man or more than one?
  4. Any operational plan for September 10 that assigns clothing colors to teams. Fix Law 2 — Intelligence Disclosure is written to force that kind of record into the open.

Until those records exist, the burgundy pattern is an observation plus a question. It is not an identification. Nobody pictured on this page is accused of anything.

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