Tyler Robinson Bullet Casing Scratches Explained As Evidence

The shell casings connected to Tyler Robinson did not just hold bullets. They also held text. Someone took the time to scratch specific words right into the metal before the shooting started and Charlie Kirk died.

It’s an odd detail. Most people trying to hide a crime don’t write their thoughts down on the evidence. Read on to find out more about it.

Messages On Bullet Casings

During a recent podcast with Jesse Weber Live on NewsNation, the host pointed out this bizarre angle. “We know there’s conversation, there’s evidence about what the messages were,” Jesse Weber said.

He then added that police found a vital clue during a search. Investigators located an engraving tool inside the home of Tyler Robinson.

Marks and the Tool

You don’t usually see handwriting experts matching scratches on a piece of brass. That feels like a trick from a movie. But forensic analyst Joseph Scott Morgan shared with Jesse that this is exactly what the state probably plans to do.

The physical tool goes to a special lab first. The FBI Laboratory has a dedicated section for firearms and tool marks. Experts there look at things under a big microscope.

The hard metal tip of an engraver has tiny, microscopic flaws. When you press it into brass, it leaves microscopic tracks behind.

If the tracks on the casings match the tool from the house, the state connects the tool to the crime.

Scratches as Handwriting

Science doesn’t stop with the metal tool itself. It moves to the actual script. It turns out that how you write follows you, even when you swap paper for a metal casing.

“These items will be examined from a physical standpoint, but you know who else is going to get involved in this, Jesse? It’s going to be forensic handwriting as well,” Joseph Scott Morgan explained.

A Problem For The Defense

An expert may analyze characteristics such as stroke pressure, letter formation, spacing, and other writing habits.

Morgan said that being able to “tie that back to a sampling of his handwriting potentially” is going to be “devastating” for the defense.

It potentially connects the suspect’s own hands to the markings rather than someone else’s, making it an equally important piece of the prosecution’s evidence.

The Burned Note

The prosecution seems to have a third point to link this all together. It’s a piece of paper that almost vanished. Lance Twiggs, Tyler Robinson’s roommate and romantic partner, became a state witness. He allegedly found a burned note in the trash earlier.

ABC4 reported that SBI Agent Brian Davis, mentioned that Lance Twiggs was questioned by authorities twice: right after the shooting and again later.

Since the state offered him immunity, prosecutors generally cannot use his protected statements against him under the terms of that agreement.

Twiggs took a quick photo of the note and hid it back under a keyboard. The paper is gone, but the digital image remains. According to the NewsNation report, the handwriting on that burned paper might match the writing on the bullet casings.

“That’s going to have his handwriting on it too, and that’s rather damning as well,” Morgan shared during the interview.

Performing for the Internet

Investigative reporting by The Guardian and researchers cited by NPR suggested the inscriptions reflected internet memes and online subcultures rather than traditional political slogans.

One casing read, “Hey Fascist! Catch!” followed by a string of arrow symbols. Gamers immediately recognized the arrows as a button-code sequence to drop a bomb in the video game Helldivers 2.

Another casing featured the line, “Notices bulge OwO what’s this,” an infamous text joke from online furry subcultures.

A third round bore the anti-fascist folk anthem lyrics “Bella Ciao,” while a final one read, “If you read this you are gay LMAO.”

Digital Footprints

The state is building a timeline around the digital footprints allegedly left by Tyler Robinson.

Investigators uncovered a Discord message where Robinson reportedly wrote to his roommate, “Remember how I was engraving bullets? The f***in messages are mostly a big meme.”

Wired reported that extremism experts described the messages as evidence of someone who was “terminally online,” using shock humor to intentionally confuse the police and create maximum chaos in the media.

The defense will likely argue that someone else could have used the tool. They might say the DNA on the scene belongs to a bystander. But matching the handwriting on a note to the words on the engraved brass makes for a tough story to beat.

Check Out The Video For More

The state is betting that a jury will see the same hand in both places. To better understand how these digital clues tie into the larger forensic picture, you can watch the expert commentary in the video below.

It provides more context on how handwriting analysis and toolmark evidence could work together when the case reaches court.

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