Ammo in Charlie Kirk killing inscribed with 'Hey fascist! Catch!', anti-Nazi slogans, memes

The ammunition belonging to the suspect arrested in connection with the assassination of Charlie Kirk was inscribed with such antifascist and anti-Nazi phrases as “Hey fascist! Catch!” as well as online memes and apparent video game references, providing a small window into the arrested man’s thinking.

The details about the ammo were announced in a press conference Friday in which authorities also identified the suspect in custody as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, a resident of western Utah.

Kirk, a popular conservative influencer and ally of President Donald Trump, was gunned down on Wednesday at Utah Valley University during a question-and-answer session at the Turning Point USA event.

The inscriptions on the ammunition suggest the suspect was steeped in antifascist politics and online meme culture, although more remains to be known about his motivations. The 31-year-old Kirk and Trump have both been compared to Nazis by figures on the left.

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said in the press conference that a family member said Robinson had become “more political” in recent years, and that earlier this year Robinson had mentioned that Kirk was coming to the Utah university, with a family member allegedly stating he believed Kirk was “full of hate” and “spreading hate.”

Investigators have said the weapon used by Robinson was an older-style Mauser .30-06 caliber bolt action rifle with a scope, and that it was recovered after he wrapped it in a dark towel and ditched it in a wooded area after the shooting.

The governor said the casing belonging to the singular round fired by Robinson that fatally struck Kirk in the neck was inscribed with the online meme, “Notices bulges OWO what’s this?” 

The website Know Your Meme states that “the phrase is a reference to a viral copypasta that parodies online furry and roleplay culture that first appeared online back in 2013.” 

The website adds that “the meme is meant to make fun of furry roleplaying, including the language and typing quirks stereotypically attributed to roleplayers and furries.” 

The website also says that “as furries have increasingly embraced the meme, it has become harder to tell whether any individual meme using the phrase is made by a furry, a troll or just a regular meme lover.”

The shell casing on one unspent round was inscribed with the phrase “Hey fascist! Catch!” accompanied by an up arrow symbol, a right arrow symbol, and three down arrow symbols, according to the governor.

The meaning of the arrows is unclear but could be a reference to a weapons code in a parody-style fascist video game.

A symbol with three downward slanting arrows was historically associated with Germany’s Iron Front and the German Social Democratic Party, which was the only party in the Reichstag to vote against the Enabling Act, a law which helped Adolf Hitler in his rise to power, and this three downward arrow symbol has been adopted by Antifa groups. 

But the inscription as described by the Utah governor was more complicated than just three downward arrows, with an upward arrow and a rightward arrow as well, meaning it does not match the Antifa symbol.

Robinson allegedly used Discord, an online communications platform commonly used by millions of video game players, according to the governor, and arrow combinations as described by the governor are commonly used as codes in video games. In particular, in the third-person shooter game Helldivers 2, online user guides state that the powerful “Eagle 500 kg bomb” is activated by using the up arrow, the right arrow, and three down arrows.

The website Know Your Meme states that “online, the stratagem code used to request the bomb drop, ↑, →, ↓↓↓ (Up, Right, Down, Down, Down), achieved popularity as a reaction and has been used as part of I'm Not Gonna Sugarcoat It and other memes.”

The Helldivers 2 studio Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt said earlier this year that the Helldivers 2 game was meant to be a fascist parody.

"What is Helldivers 2, fundamentally? It would probably be fun to play a co-op action shooter where you’re put in the shoes of the evil side grunts of pop culture … how many seconds would you be able to survive?" Pilestedt said according to PC Gamer. "We asked ourselves, could we brainwash an entire community to fight for a fascist state? Would they? Would we be okay with that? And turns out, yeah, actually."

Another unspent shell casing was inscribed with “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao,” according to the governor.

The Guardian described the song as a “classic anti-fascist anthem.” The Financial Times reported that it was “sung as an anti-fascist resistance song during the Second World War.”

An analysis by George Mason University’s Narrative Transformation Lab stated that “more than 80 years after WWII, there isn’t much evidence to show that the song was actually sung by partisans during this conflict” but that “the story of ‘Bella Ciao’ being rooted in mid-20th-century anti-fascist struggles is deeply meaningful.”

The university’s analysis added that “starting in the decades after WWII and the Italian Civil War, ‘Bella Ciao’ began spreading beyond Italy” and “it was taken up by anti-fascist movements across the world, especially leftist movements.”

Versions of the song have remained popular over the years, including in the Spanish crime drama Money Heist and the video game Far Cry 6.

The governor also said another unspent casing read: “If you read this you are gay LMAO.” This may have just been a trolling message with no deeper meaning. 

FBI Director Kash Patel, who was also at the press conference, said the successful arrest of Robinson was “what happens when you let good cops be cops.”

“In 33 hours, we have made historic progress for Charlie,” Patel said, adding that 11,000 leads were called into the FBI, and that “this is very much an ongoing investigation.”

Patel concluded: “To my friend Charlie Kirk, rest now brother. We have the watch. And I’ll see you in Valhallah.”