Bullets Found After the Charlie Kirk Shooting Carried Messages. Here’s What They Mean

On Friday, Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old Utah native, was identified by national rule enforcement arsenic a fishy successful nan murder of Charlie Kirk. During Friday’s property conference, officials said that respective slug casings recovered from a hunting firearm recovered adjacent nan crime segment had messages inscribed connected them.

During nan property conference, officials appeared to return nan inscriptions literally, to nan grade they ascribed meaning to them astatine all. But nan 4 messages apparently written by nan alleged shooter alternatively look to invoke a assortment of memes and video crippled references.

One of nan casings was said to beryllium engraved pinch nan building “Hey Fascist! Catch!” followed by an up arrow, a correct arrow, and 3 downward-facing arrows. That series is an evident reference to nan “Eagle 500kg bomb” successful nan celebrated third-person-shooter crippled Helldivers 2. The explosive has go a meme successful nan Helldivers organization for being comically excessive.

Arrowhead Game Studios, nan developers of Helldivers 2, did not instantly respond to a petition for remark from WIRED. Launched successful 2024, nan crippled has grown a cult pursuing for its Starship Troopers–like storyline. The cooperative shooter allows teams of up to 4 players, called “Helldivers,” to dispersed “freedom” crossed a fictional universe—fighting bugs, robots, and squid-like aliens alternatively than different humans. Their shape of managed populist is “basically fascism,” says independent extremism interrogator Harry Batchelor, who useful pinch nan Extremism and Gaming Research Network.

Helldivers 2 is satire, and nan immense mostly of players are successful connected it. The game, says Batchelor, “takes “the full ‘pretending to beryllium populist while really being a fascist government’ truthful seriously, it's evidently a joke.” The organization astir nan crippled has mostly maintained a positive reputation, moreover moving together to combat “review bombing”—coordinated antagonistic reviews intended to wounded a game’s chance of success.

The arrows that activate nan Eagle 500kg explosive person been utilized successful different memes to show that a personification is “going to do a big, convulsive action,” Don Caldwell, editor successful main of Know Your Meme, tells WIRED. “That’s possibly a cheeky measurement of expressing it connected nan casing.”

Shortly aft nan Friday property convention astir Kirk’s fatal shooting, moderators locked nan r/Helldivers subreddit. “Due to caller events and nan precocious magnitude of posts astir nan topic, we will beryllium locking nan subreddit temporarily,” a post connected nan subreddit reads. “We're alert of what happened, our modteam doesn't condone it.”

Helldivers whitethorn not beryllium nan only crippled reference connected nan casings. Another casing was allegedly engraved pinch lyrics to a celebrated Italian people opus called “Bella Ciao,” which translates straight to “goodbye beautiful.” The song, which has associations pinch postwar anti-fascist movements successful Italy, has seen a resurgence connected societal media successful caller years. Notably, “Bella Ciao” holds value for rebel forces during a ngo successful Far Cry 6, a video crippled group connected a fictional Caribbean land ruled by a dictator. A USB instrumentality pinch nan opus is simply a collectible point branded “Bella Ciao de Libertad,” a reference to nan rebel group; nan in-game explanation notes that nan opus has been “inspiring guerrillas and partisans for complete a century.”