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‘Bella ciao', 'fascist’: What inscriptions on bullet casings of Charlie Kirk shooting suspect read
FBI Director Kash Patel said Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the Charlie Kirk assasination, was taken into custody at 10 pm on Thursday in Utah.
US authorities on Friday revealed the details into the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, including how the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, planned the assassination.
Utah governor Spencer Cox, during a briefing on Friday, said that the investigators discovered a bolt-action rifle wrapped in a towel and inscriptions were found on the bullet casings. The casings bore inscriptions such as 'Bella ciao', 'Hey fascists' and "If you read this, you are gay LMAO."
"Investigators discovered a bolt action rifle wrapped in a dark-coloured towel...The rifle had a scope mounted on top of it. Inscriptions on a fired casing read 'Notices bulges OWO, What's this?' Inscriptions on three unfired casings read ‘Hey, fascist, exclamation point, catch, exclamation point. Up arrow symbol, right arrow symbol and three down arrow symbols," Cox said during the briefing.
Also Read: Tyler Robinson's plot to kill Charlie Kirk: Hidden rifle, Discord messages, and a change of clothes
The authorities said that a Mauser .30-caliber, bolt-action rifle was found wrapped in a towel in the woods. A used cartridge was recovered from the chamber, and three other rounds were loaded in the magazine.
"A second unfired casing read 'Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao ciao'. A third unfired casing read 'If you read this, you are gay LMAO'," he added.
Charlie Kirk, a prominent ally of former President Donald Trump, was fatally shot on Wednesday while speaking at Utah Valley University. He was shot as he spoke to a crowd gathered in a courtyard at the university in Orem.
FBI Director Kash Patel, in the same press briefing on Friday, said Tyler Robinson, the suspect in the Charlie Kirk assasination, was taken into custody at 10 pm on Thursday in Utah. He was arrested 33 hours after the shooting.
Also Read: Tyler Robinson motive: FBI reveal why Charlie Kirk was killed
“In less than 36 hours, 33 to be precise, thanks to the full weight of the federal government and leading out with the partners here in the state of Utah and Gov. Cox, the suspect was apprehended in historic time period,” Patel said.
The US authorities earlier said that more than 7,000 leads and tips had poured in as authorities responded to the latest act of political violence to convulse the United States.
How was the suspect caught?
Utah Governor Spencer Cox said the investigators arrested Tyler Robinson after a family member alerted authorities that he had confessed in the killing.
The tip was then passed from the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to investigators at Utah Valley University and the FBI, who then reviewed surveillance footage of Robinson arriving on campus in a gray Dodge Challenger the morning of September 10, the day of the assassination.
The footage showed Robinson in a plain maroon T-shirt, light-colored shorts, a black hat with a white logo and light shoes. When investigators encountered him in Washington County on Friday, he was wearing clothes consistent with those images, according to the Utah Governor.
