Bullet casings recovered from the shooter who killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk were inscribed with several anti-fascist and provocative phrases.
The messages were revealed as authorities named the suspect as 22-year-old Utah resident Tyler Robinson, and said he was arrested on Thursday night.
One of the unfired casings was engraved with, ‘Hey fascist! Catch!’ and had an arrow symbol pointing up, one pointing right and three pointing down.
‘I think that that speaks for itself,’ said Utah Governor Spencer Cox during a press conference on Friday morning.
The arrows seem to allude to controller moves that set off bombs in the Helldivers 2 video game.
Another unused casing was inscribed with ‘Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao, ciao, ciao’. That is an anti-fascist rallying cry, and are lyrics from an Italian folk song exalting fighters who resisted Nazis during World War II. It was in a recent Netflix series.
A third unfired casing carried the message, ‘If you read this, you are gay LMAO,’ meaning ‘laughing my ass off’.
And a fired casing contained the meme, ‘Notices, bulges, OwO what’s this?’ The trolling phrase emerged in the 2010s in animated videos and furries. ‘OwO’ refers to an emoticon, and ‘what’s this?’ conveys curiosity in the video gaming.
Cox did not release images of the inscribed casings.
The inscriptions reflect that the shooter was in tune with antifascist rhetoric and suggests he was in the video game and online community that is popular among youth.
Authorities discovered the casings along with a bolt-action rifle that had a scope and was wrapped in a towel in a grassy area at the north end of Utah Valley University.
Kirk was shot on campus on Wednesday afternoon while speaking to students as part of The American Comeback Tour.
He was pronounced dead at a hospital shortly after, and a manhunt for the shooter ensued as tributes poured out for the 31-year-old who co-founded Turning Point USA, the most influential conservative youth political organization.
A family member of Robinson reached out to a family friend, who tipped him off to authorities.
President Donald Trump has called for the death penalty for the shooter.
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