From 'Bella ciao,' to the arrows: Decoding the etchings Charlie Kirk's alleged killer left behind

Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer left messages etched on cartridges that are meant to speak to the slang of popular video games and online culture.

Authorities found the missives from alleged 22-year-old killer, Tyler Robinson, with the gun officials say was used to assassinate the influential American conservative activist last Wednesday while he was speaking to a large crowd on the campus of Utah Valley University.

The etchings on four separate cartridges said: “NoTices Bulge OWO What’s This?”, “Hey Facist! Catch!” followed by five arrow symbols (up, right, down, down, down), “O Bella ciao, Bella ciao Bella ciao Ciao, ciao!” and “If you Read This, You Are GAY Lmao.”

Robinson allegedly addressed the etchings in text messages sent to his roommate and romantic partner , who authorities say identifies as transgender, according to charging documents released Tuesday.

“Remember how I was engraving bullets? The f–kin messages are mostly a big meme, if I see ‘notices bulge uwu’ on fox new (sic) I might have a stroke,” Robinson allegedly wrote.

For a tutorial on what the engravings might be trying to express, Postmedia turned to Evan Liu, a PhD candidate in communications and culture at York University whose dissertation is about how internet memes and slang spread across online digital platforms.

What’s behind the meme-laced language employed by Kirk’s alleged killer?

“Internet language, from my research and also from my experience, has a lot to do with both irony and also satire,” Liu said.

“This is, of course, also found in the mainstream media, where you have shows like Saturday Night Live, for example in the U.S., which frequently employs those comedic tropes that are rooted in irony and satire.”

Why are the messages on the alleged killer’s cartridge casings tapping that same rich vein?

“He’s clearly invoking the same kind of trolling/non-serious nature of internet language, and it’s obviously to contrast with a horrific shooting,” Liu said.

The alleged killer chose phrases that people recognize, “or spark curiosity,” suspecting they’ll get discussed in the mainstream media, he said.

“That way he gets to influence the narrative at least a little bit,” Liu said. “Theres a reason why he left these messages.”

Would most folks over the age of 20 understand the language used on the cartridge engravings?

“I’m a gamer myself and I’m 32 years old,” he said. “Many of the people who I play with online … are in their thirties, too. They are married with kids.”

Liu’s go-to game, World of Warships, also attracts players in their 40s and 50s, he said. “They are veterans of the U.S. Navy or Air Force,” as well as Canadian military vets.

Who were the engraved messages aimed at?

According to Liu, some of the engraved cartridge messages likely weren’t left for police, medical examiners, or Utah’s governor, Spencer Cox, who read some of them out last week at a news conference announcing Robinson’s arrest.

One contained the engraving “Bella ciao,” a historic reference, according to Liu, to the folk song that was transformed by the Italian resistance during WWII into an anti-fascist anthem.

“It became a reoccurring symbol in popular culture where you have games that are based on WWII, based around that era, invoke this kind of messaging as historical symbolism and also as a cultural (and) political commentary,” Liu said.

“I believe it shows, at least partly, what the shooter is aligning with in terms of where he is on the political spectrum.”

Was the “Bella ciao” reference made to be spoken or sung aloud?

It was meant to be sung, Liu said, noting Gov. Cox’s attempt to read it instead sparked lots of laughs from the online world.

“They can’t believe that the governor didn’t just sing the phrase out because, to them, it’s as symbolic as I Want It That Way lyrics from the Backstreet Boys. You’re not supposed to read it, you’re supposed to sing it.”

What message was another cartridge engraving that used the “up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrow symbols” trying to convey?

That’s a reference to a sequence of controller moves that allows players to drop 500 kg bombs in the popular video game Helldivers 2.

“Helldivers 2 became a sensation this past year,” Liu said.

“It was based on the Warhammer 40,000 universe … imagine a very grim, dark, futuristic cyber punk scenario where earth is under this so-called managed democracy where the citizens obey a central government.”

In Helldivers 2, players dive down to war zones to fight alien beings and rebels “with all sorts of weapons and inputs. And here, the (arrows signifying) up, right, down, down, down, refers to command input for dropping a 500-kilogram payload bomb on to a target location.”

The engraving “invokes the setting of the game where you hail from this so-called managed democracy,” Liu said. “Let’s be honest, they call it a democracy, but obviously, they’re not…. That brings it back to the whole idea of are we fighting for the good guys, or are we fighting for the bad guys debate. And, clearly, it’s ironic, because it’s the whole idea of I am coming from this managed democracy perspective, but am I really fighting for the good cause?”

Are some of the messages meant to be more literal?

Another one of the killer’s unfired cartridges says, “Hey Fascist! Catch!” According to Gov. Cox, that one showed the gunman’s intent. “I think that speaks for itself,” he told reporters last week.

Liu wasn’t willing to wade into interpreting that reference.

“I don’t know enough about the shooter,” he said. “I’m not comfortable enough to share my commentary on this as a political perspective.”

Another one of the alleged killer’s cartridge engravings says, “NoTices Bulge OWO What’s This?” What’s that trying to convey?

According to Liu, that’s used for trolling, with roots in online role-play communities.

“It came from an online subcultural group called the furries,” Liu said. “It started in the 1960s in the U.S. and then it quickly took over, along with the anime wave, online in the new millennia.”

Furries dress up like animals in costumes, Liu said. “They call it fur suits and getting into fur gears. And they are incredibly expensive for what they’re worth. It’s a very fringe, niche hobby.”

Furries “play a lot with sexual humour and self-depricating humour,” Liu said.

The engraving — an emoji whose capital Os are meant to depict eyes that just saw something interesting — is meant as a “signal towards the those furry role play group, ” he said. “You can call this an inside joke if you absolutely must.”

What’s behind the engraving that says, “If you Read This, You Are GAY Lmao”

“That one’s obviously for the general population,” Liu said. “It’s very classic internet humour. Anyone who has ever been online in the 1990s or 2000s would get this as a very stupid joke.”

Why do you think the alleged killer left these engravings behind?

“He’s invoking his connection to these groups,” Liu said.

“He probably anticipated that he would get arrested and that these messages would be found. That’s the presumption of these bullet casings. So, I believe that he left these as sort of his way to still influence the narrative after his arrest, because obviously he couldn’t do that. He wouldn’t be giving interviews as freely. So, these are like dog whistles, if you will, to those groups. And those who know will know, basically. And, clearly, he meant to leave this for just the online population – those that are terminally online. But if you’re from the mainstream media … you’ll be scratching your head over what the hell does he mean by all of this?”

Have other killer used similar messaging?

According to Liu, comparable cases include August’s Minneapolis church shooting, as well as recent school shootings in Russia and Finland.

“All of these shooters came from internet backgrounds,” Liu said. “But none of them left these messages at the shooting scene. So, it’s very hard to draw them together. But in this case (with the Kirk assassination), we have a clear and undisputable way of displaying internet culture at the crime scene.”

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