Criminologist tells MSNBC she can't find motive for Charlie Kirk's killing in bullet casing messages

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MSNBC featured a criminologist on Friday who said she could not identify a clear motive for why conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s suspected killer targeted him.

Criminologist Casey Jordan appeared on “MSNBC Reports” and offered her interpretation of the messages etched into bullet casings found near the suspected shooter Tyler Robinson’s weapon. Jordan noted that casings engraved with “Hey fascist! Catch!”, and other slogans, did not provide enough of a clue as to why Robinson allegedly shot and killed Kirk, beyond showing he’s immature.

“I’m kind of overwhelmed with how immature it all sounds, and that there is no really chronic theme,” she said.

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Charlie Kirk memorial

Criminologist Casey Jordan said Friday on MSNBC that anti-fascist messages appearing on the suspect’s weapon in Charlie Kirk’s killing do not reveal a clear motive. (Anadolu/Getty)

Authorities said Friday they apprehended Robinson, the suspect accused of shooting and killing 31-year-old Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk while he was speaking to Utah Valley University students Wednesday.

Gov. Spencer Cox, R-Utah, called the killing a “political assassination” on Friday.

Law enforcement also recovered the weapon, a bolt-action Mauser .30-06 rifle, along with several spent casings and unfired rounds that had messages on them. 

The etchings included the phrases, “Notices,” “bulges,” “OWO,” “what’s this?,” “Hey fascist! Catch!,” “Bella ciao bella ciao ciao,” “If you read this, you are gay LMAO,” and a series of arrows: one pointing up, one pointing to the right, and three pointing down.

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Charlie Kirk speaks at the Cambridge Union

Charlie Kirk speaks at the Cambridge Union in Cambridge, England, on May 19, 2025. (Nordin Catic/Getty Images for The Cambridge Union)

“Bella Ciao” is an anti-fascist song popularized by left-wing Italian partisans during World War II, according to the New York Post. Despite the casings including anti-fascist messaging, Jordan told MSNBC host Ana Cabrera she couldn’t point to a motive. 

“What do you see as the significance or what the message is that he’s trying to communicate here?” Cabrera asked.

“Really, I would need to actually see these words in the way that they are on the bullet casings and the gun to make a proper interpretation,” the criminologist replied. 

She compared the engravings to the “rantings of a really immature child.”

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Criminologist Casey Jordan on MSNBC

Criminologist Casey Jordan told MSNBC Friday that she does not see a clear motive yet in Charlie Kirk’s killing. (Screenshot/MSNBC)

“And we really need to learn a lot more about what was going on in this accused shooter’s life when all of this was happening,” Jordan continued. “Was he in a rabbit hole? Was he – did he have no job? Did he have no purpose? You know, how did he become such a consumer of hate that his family reports he was, you know, talking in, in with hate speech about his feelings about the victim just at the family dinner the night before?”

Jordan did say she believed the engraving on suspect’s casings could have been inspired by the messages police found engraved on weapons owned by the shooter who killed two children and wounded 18 others at a Minnesota Catholic school in August. 

“Mostly, my takeaway is that the writings on the gun and on the bullets really emulate everything we just saw a few weeks ago in the Minnesota Catholic school shooting. So, I don’t think this has been a long-term plan. I think it probably was hatched when this alleged shooter heard the Charlie Kirk was coming to the area, his area, in his backyard at a university that he could easily access,” she said.

Fox News Digital reached out to MSNBC for comment and did not receive an immediate response.

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