A MAJOR American news outlet has issued a correction after making false claims about inscriptions on the bullets found near the site of Charlie Kirk's murder.
The Wall Street Journal posted an editor’s note on Twitter/X on Friday evening correcting an earlier article which claimed the alleged gunman, Tyler Robinson, had engraved “transgender ideology” on bullets recovered from Utah Valley University.
The information came from an internal law enforcement bulletin, which US Justice Department officials later warned “may not accurately reflect the messages on the ammunition”.
The statement read: “Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article detailed how an internal law enforcement bulletin said that ammunition recovered following the Charlie Kirk shooting was engraved with expressions of ‘transgender and anti-fascist ideology’.
“Justice Department officials later urged caution about the bulletin by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, saying it may not accurately reflect the messages on the ammunition, and the article was updated Thursday to reflect that.
“This editor’s note was appended on Friday, after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said the engravings included one that said ‘Hey fascist!’ along with other messages and symbols.
“He gave no indication that the ammunition included any transgender references.”
https://t.co/uUcGLPObPb pic.twitter.com/MYM4ekswsv
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 12, 2025
Governor Cox confirmed during a press briefing on Friday that an inscription on the casing from the bullet which killed the conservative influencer read “notices, bulges, OwO, what's this?".
Further unspent casings had messages including “Hey fascist, catch”, followed by an upwards arrow, right arrow and three downwards arrows – a possible reference to the videogame Helldivers 2.
Other unused casing inscriptions read “if you read this you are gay LMAO” and “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella cia, cia, ciao”. The latter message contains lyrics from Italian anti-Nazi and anti-fascist folk song Bella Ciao.
The FBI released pictures of a “person of interest” on Thursday and Robinson was arrested on Friday after his father turned him in to law enforcement.
Rumours spread on social media that the gunman had donated to Donald Trump, though a fact check from Snopes revealed that the 22-year-old was “unaffiliated” with any political party. The publication noted that his family, however, were registered Republicans.
Trump has since called for Robinson to receive the death penalty.
