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Many of the messages adopt the flippant, sarcastic chatter often found on online message boards and in-game chats.
By Richard Fausset, New York Times Service
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Unfired cartridges found with the gun that officials say was used to kill Charlie Kirk were engraved with a variety of messages, authorities said Friday, including many that suggest a familiarity with anti-fascist symbolism and the insider slang of video games and online culture that pervade the lives of young Americans.
Many of the messages, described by Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah at a news conference announcing the arrest of Tyler Robinson, 22, adopt the flippant, sarcastic, in-jokey chatter often found on online message boards and in-game chats.
“Up arrow, right arrow, and three down arrow symbols,” as the governor described one engraving, appears to be a reference to a sequence of controller moves that unleashes bombs in the popular video game Helldivers 2.
Another phrase on the cartridges, “Notices bulges OwO what’s this?” is used for trolling, with roots in online role-play communities.
Some of the other messages on the unfired cartridges appear more politically straightforward, including one that says, “Hey, fascist! Catch!” The latter message, Cox said, most clearly showed the gunman’s intent. “I think that speaks for itself,” he said.
Another featured the words “Bella ciao,” an apparent reference to an Italian song adopted by the anti-fascist resistance during World War II. It is still sung by the Italian left and in other countries to commemorate the fight against fascism, and it also appears in a recent Netflix series.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
