Investigators in the killing of Charlie Kirk disclosed that they found a bolt-action rifle near the site where he was shot on a Utah campus, stating that they also found casings scrawled with what seemed to be mysterious messages.
The messages were engraved into four bullet casings, which included references to memes and video game in-jokes.
An affidavit filed by authorities in the case described these messages. One of the inscriptions, according to the affidavit, read, “hey fascist! CATCH!” followed by a combination of directional arrows, an apparent reference to a sequence of button presses that unleashes a bomb in a popular video game, Reuters reported.
Another casing, according to the affidavit, read, “If you read this, you are GAY Lmao,” short for “laughing my ass off.”
Kirk, known for his charged rhetoric, drew a large following of conservatives but also faced widespread criticism for his public comments, which were often anti-LGBT and anti-immigrant, creating strong negative reactions from liberals and other critics.
Robinson, a third-year student in the electrical apprenticeship program at Dixie Technical College, part of Utah’s public university system, was taken into custody at his parents’ house, about 260 miles (420 km) southwest of the crime scene, after a 33-hour manhunt.
The Utah Governor, Spencer Cox, explained that the relatives and a family friend alerted authorities that he had implicated himself in the crime.
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While Robinson was raised by religious parents in a deeply conservative region of the state, “his ideology was very different from his family,” Cox said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” program, without going into specifics.
State records indicated that the suspect, Robinson, was a registered voter with no political party affiliation. However, a family member informed investigators that Robinson had recently become more involved in politics and had voiced his strong dislike for Kirk’s views, according to the arrest warrant affidavit.
Robinson was “not a fan” of Kirk’s, Cox said on Sunday.
The killing has stirred outrage among Kirk’s supporters and condemnation of political violence across the ideological spectrum.
Trump has blamed “the radical left” for Kirk’s death, despite a lack of evidence, even as he and his allies have often invoked violent rhetoric against their opponents.
“The problem is on the left,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “A lot of people that you would traditionally say are on the left … (are) already under investigation.”
