Bullet casings discovered in association with the death of Charlie Kirk contained messages inscribed on them.
The tragic news of the 31-year-old right-wing activist’s death last week sent shockwaves worldwide. Kirk was attending an event at Utah Valley University when he was tragically shot in the neck by an individual in the audience.
Tyler Robinson, aged 22, has been identified as a suspect in this case and is currently being held without bail. His identification came after the FBI released images and video footage of a person believed to be linked to Kirk’s death, seeking public assistance in identifying the individual.
Robinson, a 22-year-old from Utah, emerged as the primary suspect in the investigation related to Kirk’s assassination, being named by police on September 12.
Reports indicate that Robinson harbors ‘leftist ideology,’ according to Utah Governor Spencer Cox, despite his upbringing in a ‘conservative family.’ There is speculation that Robinson may have been radicalized through the dark web.
Governor Cox mentioned to NBC, “Clearly there was a lot of gaming going on.” He added, “Friends have confirmed that there was kind of that deep, dark internet, the Reddit culture, and these other dark places of the internet where this person was going deep.”
Law enforcement discovered bullet casings, allegedly used by Robinson, with engravings on them. The day after the incident, investigators disclosed the discovery of a bolt action rifle wrapped in a dark-colored towel, along with bullet casings bearing messages such as ‘hey fascist’ and ‘catch.’
One unfired casing bore the words ‘oh Bella caio, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,’ while another read: ‘if you read this you are gay lmao.’ Another casing had the inscription ‘Notices bulge OwO what’s this?’
The peculiar messages on the casings have left many puzzled, but those familiar with internet culture recognize the writing as referring to a meme from the 2010s. In 2015, a meme satirizing the furry community and roleplay culture gained viral attention.
FurScience describes a ‘furry’ as: “The term furry describes a diverse community of fans, artists, writers, gamers, and role players. Most furries create for themselves an anthropomorphized animal character (fursona) with whom they identify and can function as an avatar within the community.”
Some individuals have a sexual interest in these anthropomorphic animal characters. The meme in question features two men at separate computers engaging in conversation, one of whom is adorned with cat ears.
The individual with cat ears types: “hehe your a cutie x3 *flops besides you and nuzzles*.” The other man replies: “nuzzles u back and pounces on u and notices your buldge ‘OwO what’s this..?”
The ‘OwO’ is an emoticon depicting a cute face, with the Os representing eyes and the w forming a mouth or nose, as explained by the New York Post.