Charlie Kirk shooting suspect in custody, officials announce
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Tyler Robinson, the accused killer of U.S. conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, inscribed messages on four bullet casings found with the suspected murder weapon, according to authorities in Utah.
Kirk, 31, a key ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, was shot dead on Wednesday while speaking at an event on the campus of Utah Valley University.
Investigators said they found the casings along with a .30-calibre bolt-action Mauser rifle wrapped in a towel in a grassy area along the route they believe Robinson took to flee the scene of the shooting.
During Friday's news conference announcing the 22-year-old Robinson was in custody, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox listed the words and symbols found on three unfired bullet casings and a fourth that was spent. According to Cox and a probable-cause statement filed in court Friday, the messages were:
- "hey fascist! CATCH!" followed by a series of five arrow symbols.
- "O Bella ciao, Bella ciao, Bella ciao Ciao ciao!"
- "If you read This, you are GAY Lmao."
- "Notices Buldge OwO what's this?" (this was on the spent casing).
The revelations quickly kicked off speculation about what the messages could mean, while some observers cautioned against leaping to conclusions.
"I will leave that up to you to interpret what those engravings mean," Cox said in response to a reporter's question about them.
Cox said he believes that"hey fascist! CATCH!" was the clearest message.
"I think that speaks for itself," he said.
Here are some facts about a few of the inscriptions the authorities say were found on the bullet casings.
'Bella ciao'
Bella ciao (which translates as both"Hello, beautiful" and "Goodbye, beautiful") is the name of an Italian folk song dating back to the 19th century that became an anthem of the resistance against fascist leader Benito Mussolini during the Second World War.
The song was most recently popularized in Money Heist, a hit Netflix series about a fictional group of bank robbers in Madrid who become folk heroes in their standoff with the Spanish authorities.
Arrow symbols
Gamers quickly identified that the particular sequence of five arrow symbols — up, right, down, down, down — is code in the game Helldivers 2 for dropping a 500-kg bomb.
"Enlist in the Helldivers and join the fight for freedom across a hostile galaxy in a fast, frantic and ferocious third-person shooter," the developer, Arrowhead Game Studios, says on its website.
'Notices Buldge OwO what's this?'
OwO is used in text messaging and social media to indicate surprise, according to the Collins Dictionary.
"Notices Buldge" appears to be a misspelled reference to a meme with sexual connotations typically used in online trolling, according to the KnowYourMeme website.
Engravings found on bullets with rifle allegedly used in Kirk shooting
7 hours ago
Utah's governor said they have a 22-year-old suspect in custody, Tyler Robinson, in connection with Wednesday’s fatal shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk. Engravings on bullets found with a rifle believed to have been used in the attack contained messages, the governor said.
