BBC: The Motive Behind Charlie Kirk's Killing: What we know and don't know

The BBC's Nada Tawfik on the key takeaways from Tyler Robinson's first court appearance

Mike Wendling and
Shayan Sardarizadeh

 

The roommate of the suspect in the killing of Charlie Kirk had one question.

"Why?"

"I had enough of his hatred," Tyler Robinson wrote back. "Some hate can't be negotiated out."

On Tuesday, authorities released messages between Robinson and the roommate from the hours after the shooting. Officials have said the unnamed roommate was a "biological male" who was transitioning from man to woman and was in a romantic relationship with the defendant.

Prosecutors also gave further details that could point to a possible motive – although there is still much that is not known.

According to an indictment, Robinson's mother told police that over the last year or so, Robinson had become more political and left-wing, "more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented".

And in family conversations before the shooting, Robinson allegedly accused Kirk of spreading hate.

Prosecutors say Robinson left a message for his roommate: "I had the opportunity to take out Charlie Kirk and I'm going to take it."

During Tuesday's news conference, Utah County prosecutor Jeff Gray said instead of deleting the messages like Robinson asked, the roommate provided the missives to police.

Messages on shell casings

The messages and interviews with family members form crucial parts of the indictment against Robinson and give some insight as to his state of mind.

In addition, investigators have also said that four shell casings were found alongside a rifle discovered in a wooded area near the Utah Valley University campus.

The shell casings had messages engraved in them which, prior to Robinson's arrest, were among the only potential clues as to the killer's motive - and have been the subject of much speculation.

One unfired round had the words "Hey fascist! Catch!" along with an up, right and three down arrows – mostly likely a reference to a video game, Helldivers 2, indicating one of the game's special moves.

Another shell casing, authorities say, read "NoTices Bulge OWO What's This?" - a reference to a meme about furry subculture and online roleplaying.

The BBC has also seen an online profile allegedly owned by Robinson on a website dedicated to furry fandom, suggesting he may have had an interest in the subject.

Another casing was inscribed with lyrics from the song Bella Ciao, which honours World War Two-era partisans of the Italian resistance who fought Nazi Germany. The song has also appeared in a video game, a TV series and has been covered and remixed many times in the years since.

The fourth cartridge read: "If you Read This, You Are GAY Lmao" – another online reference.

But the exact meaning of the messages, if indeed they are intended to have any meaning at all beyond a prank, is still unclear. The nature of online language, with its layers upon layers of irony, means that multiple interpretations are possible.

In the messages to his roommate Robinson said the engravings were "mostly a big meme", indicating perhaps that they should not be taken as a serious statement.

Pictures of social media accounts apparently owned by Robinson and his roommate which have been circulating online are mostly focused on gaming - it appears that both Robinson and his roommate were keen video gamers.

The accounts do include a few scattered comments on politics, none of them particularly conclusive or directly indicative of a motive. The BBC has reviewed the accounts, but has not been able to confirm that they belong to the pair.

According to the messages released by prosecutors, when asked by his roommate how long he'd taken to plan the attack, Robinson responded: "A bit over a week."

• Read the text messages between Charlie Kirk accused and roommate

 

What don't we know?

Prosecutors in Utah mostly declined to answer questions from the media on Tuesday, and although the state's Governor Spencer Cox said Robinson had a "leftist ideology", there are still gaps in what we know about a possible motive.

For instance, it's unclear what specifically Robinson found objectionable about Kirk. It's also unclear how Robinson might have been radicalised and what role his online activities might have had in that process.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about what role - if any - the suspect's politics played in the attack.

When Grey, the county prosecutor, was asked directly whether transgender activism inspired the shooting, he declined to comment.

There also remains the possibility that the suspect may have had no coherent political stance. In several recent US mass shootings and assassination attempts - including the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in Pennsylvania last July - killers have appeared to have a jumbled set of political beliefs, or no clearly defined ideology.

The FBI recently recognised a new category of threat called nihilistic violent extremism or NVE, defined by a general hostility to society and desire for chaos rather than a sharply defined ideology.

FBI Director Kash Patel said in a Senate hearing Tuesday that his agency had seen a large uptick in cases involving NVE.

In the Kirk case, Katherine Schweit, a former FBI agent and prosecutor, said investigators will be busy tracking Robinson's online communications and interactions with friends and family members to glean more information.

"That gives us a lot of insight into somebody's pathway to the violence," she said, adding that agents will "piece them all together to see how someone moves on the pathway from frustration all the way to choosing to commit a violent act."

The prospect of capital punishment means that prosecutors will need to show intent to commit murder when they press their case in court. However, Schweit says that's distinct from motivation, which may or may not be directly relevant to the case.

"TV and movies have taught us that the motive is the most important thing, but from a prosecution standpoint, it's not."

Schweit also noted that some high-profile assassins have been motivated by the desire to be famous or impress people.

• Charlie Kirk suspect confessed in note to roommate, prosecutors allege
• Who is Tyler Robinson, the suspect in custody for shooting Charlie Kirk?
• Kirk shooting throws Utah students into heart of US political divide

Partisan activists fuel speculation

During Tuesday's Senate hearing, FBI director Patel also said that others are being investigated for possible involvement in the shooting.

As of yet, no-one else has been charged in connection with the case and investigators have not indicated anyone else was involved.

That has not stopped fevered - and for the most part un-evidenced - speculation online about alleged motives and large-scale plots.

A number of right-wing influencers with huge social media followings, including several who are close to President Trump and Kirk's Turning Point USA organisation, have alleged that the shooting was the work of a group or "terror cell" inspired by transgender activism and funded by left-wing activists.

Trump said this week he will designate Antifa as a "major terrorist organisation" as part of his efforts to target the "radical left", following Kirk's killing. Robinson, the suspect, has not been directly linked to Antifa, a decentralised, leftist movement that opposes far-right, racist and fascist groups.

• What is Antifa and why is Trump targeting it?

Some high-profile right-wing podcasters, including Trump's former chief adviser Steve Bannon, have suggested that the text messages exchanged by Robinson and his roommate were somehow faked or false, implying - again without evidence - a broader conspiracy.

At the same time, a number of left-wing social media users have continued to claim that Robinson is a Trump supporter or member of a fringe, far-right group known as "groypers" - who consistently castigated Kirk for not supporting their white nationalist and anti-Semitic beliefs.

Those claims also lack evidence, and prosecutors and Utah officials have given no indication that far-right groups are involved.

"Everybody's jumping to conclusions because that's the society we live in," said Schweit, the former FBI agent. "Everybody wants an answer – and right now."[SOURCE]

 

Dr Jerome Corsi Show_Sept 17 2025__Charlie Kirk Assassination Effect Globally: What it all means_Pt I

AIPAC_Liberty Vault and Glenn Greenwald discuss: Does Israel have too much influence over American politics and foreign policy?

FOREIGN POLICY_Through The Eyes Of A Sceptic: Walt Benson explains why the Iranian attack's timing is curious

Dr John Campbell_2 Physicians discuss population control: "The abolition of proper medicine"

Trans Activism: Learn Who They Are_An expert explains the roots of their dark perversion

Jesuits_Who They Are: AP dives "deep" on the Society Of Jesus

 

By GIOVANNA DELL’ORTO
Updated 9:12 AM EDT, April 23, 2025



Pope Francis was the first pontiff elected from the Society of Jesus — also known as the Jesuits.

It’s one of the most prominent religious orders in the Catholic Church, with approximately 15,000 priests, brothers and novices from more than 110 countries.

Their reach extends from prestigious universities in world capitals to humble migrant shelters in sweltering jungle hamlets, all in pursuit of the mission encapsulated in their motto — “ad majorem Dei gloriam” (“for the greater glory of God”).

“As if answering an implicit question about who a Jesuit is, Pope Francis … affirmed that ‘the Jesuit is a servant of the joy of the Gospel’ in whatever mission he is engaging,” the order’s superior general, the Rev. Arturo Sosa, wrote in his message to fellow Jesuits upon Francis’ death.

Here are some essential facts about the Jesuits.

The history and global presence of the Jesuits

The order was founded in the 16th century by Spanish St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose “Spiritual Exercises” are still a classic of Catholic contemplative practices. From the beginning, he emphasized the missionary, international reach of the order.

Over the subsequent centuries, the Jesuits have built a reputation in scholarship and education, founding schools and universities around the globe, including Georgetown University in Washington and the Pontifical Gregorian University, which serves mostly clergy, nuns and seminarians in Rome.

Far from the halls of academia, the Jesuits have also often led frontline efforts to help those on the margins, ministering at many border flashpoints in the Americas and to refugees from conflict and humanitarian crises worldwide.

That ability to move from socio-political elites to the most marginalized has been a hallmark of the Jesuits from their founding, said the Rev. Bruce Morrill, a Jesuit priest and theology professor at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

“God is glorified where human beings are saved,” Morrill said, summarizing the thread between the Jesuits’ educational, spiritual, social justice and humanitarian missions.

The Jesuit ministry to refugees and migrants, a priority for Francis

Jesuit Refugee Service was founded in 1980 to respond to the growing needs of those escaping the aftermath of the Vietnam War.

Since then, it has become one of the most active organizations globally in helping refugees, asylum seekers and migrants around the world, regardless of their faith. Advocating for migrants was one of Francis’ top priorities.

There are also Jesuit Migrant Network and Jesuit Migrant Service groups active in many countries, providing humanitarian, legal, psycho-social and pastoral care to those displaced by violence or hunger.

They also minister to the families migrants leave behind. Nearly two dozen migrants left from the area around a small town in Guatemala’s largely Indigenous highlands, only to die en route in Mexico and the United States in recent mass tragedies. The parents and siblings of the dead said the Jesuits were the only constant support.

The Rev. Michael Gallagher, a Jesuit priest and attorney, ministered to 13,000 migrants last year in El Paso, Texas, where his church used to operate a shelter a few blocks north of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is now closed, due to the enormous drop in border crossings.


“We all felt greatly supported by his keeping saying that migrants are important,” Gallagher said of Francis. “His continued focus on the humanity and human dignity of all people, especially those often demonized, is one of his lasting contributions.”

Also in Texas, the Rev. Brian Strassburger, another Jesuit priest, directs Del Camino Border Ministries in the Rio Grande Valley and has often visited nearby shelters in Mexico. He called Francis a “great pastor and pilgrim” who put “the defense of migrants at the center of his papacy” from the beginning through his final Easter message.

“He constantly reminded us that we are all migrants on a journey in this life, and our final destination is eternal rest with the Lord,” Strassburger said.

Political struggles and controversies through the centuries

At one point in history the Jesuits were refugees of sorts themselves — Pope Clement XIV, bowing to pressure from European political interests in 1773, ordered the society to be disbanded. In 1814, a different pope restored the Jesuits, who got right back into their educational vocation.

Just two years ago, Nicaragua’s government confiscated the Jesuit-run University of Central America, which had been a hub of massive protests against President Daniel Ortega. His crackdown on religious freedom has been widely condemned.

During El Salvador’s civil war, the church tried to mediate peace between the government and those rising against it when, in 1989, soldiers killed six Jesuits on the campus of the Central American University in the country’s capital.

Many communities in Mexico are still grieving the 2022 murder of two elderly Jesuit priests in the remote Tarahumara mountains by a leader of one of Mexico’s crime gangs.


The Jesuits have also been targets of controversy, from abuses in former residential schools for Indigenous children in Canada and the United States affiliated with the order to a recent case involving a famous ex-Jesuit artist.

The order announced last month reparations to some 20 women who said they were sexually, psychologically and spiritually abused by the Rev. Marko Rupnik, who was expelled by the Jesuits in 2023. [SOURCE]

 

Jesuits_Vatican investigator says claims of Jesuit abuse true

 

By NICOLE WINFIELD
Published 2:58 PM EDT, December 19, 2022



ROME (AP) — A Vatican-appointed investigator who helped bring to light decades-old allegations of sexual and spiritual abuse against a famous Jesuit priest is calling for the hierarchs who hid his crimes to “humbly ask the world to forgive the scandal.”

In correspondence obtained Monday, Bishop Daniele Libanori also said the claims of the women about the Rev. Marko Ivan Rupnik were true and that they had “seen their lives ruined by the evil suffered and by the complicit silence” of the church.

Libanori penned the letter Sunday to fellow priests after a remarkable week in which the Jesuit religious order of Pope Francis admitted that Rupnik, an artist whose mosaics grace churches and chapels around the world, had been excommunicated for having committed one of the most serious crimes in the church: using the confessional to absolve a woman with whom he had engaged in sexual activity.


The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which handles sex abuse cases, declared the excommunication in May 2020 but lifted it that same month and then declined to prosecute him a year later when nine women came forward with other, related allegations. The Congregation, which is headed by Jesuits, said the cases were to old to prosecute.

Libanori, who is himself a Jesuit, uncovered the women’s stories when he was sent in 2019 by the Vatican to conduct an investigation into their troubled community in Slovenia amid complaints about their current leader.








Rupnik, who is Slovene, had helped found the Loyola Community of consecrated women in the 1980s, but was ordered to leave in 1993 for reasons that now appear related to allegations he sexually and spiritually abused the women under his spiritual care there.

Learning of the claims, Libanori urged the women to file formal complaints with the Vatican, resulting in the 2021 case that was ultimately shelved because it was deemed too old to prosecute.


Despite the early exile from Slovenia, Rupnik retained some supporters and a group of women followed him to Rome where he founded a hugely successful art and cultural study center — the Aletti Center, which has its own publishing imprint, Lipa Editions. Rupnik still enjoys a strong web of supporters, some of whom have sought to discredit the Slovene accusers by questioning their mental health, according to another piece of Libanori correspondence.

“It’s ignoble to think of reducing responsibility and diminishing the evil by dismissing those who complain with summary judgments about their mental health or, worse, their seriousness,” Libanori wrote in a Dec. 4 letter to the Slovene community members. “If anything, this makes the responsibility of those who took advantage of them more serious.”

The Rupnik scandal has underscored the weaknesses in the Vatican’s abuse policies concerning spiritual and sexual abuse of adult women, and how powerful priests can often count on high-ranking support even after credible allegations against them are lodged.

Libanori’s correspondence evidences the same playbook used by other accused priests — the Rev. Marcial Maciel and ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for example -- who managed to discredit their accusers for decades by claiming they were unstable, out to hurt them or the church, or were merely spreading slanderous “calumnies.”


Libanori, who is also an auxiliary bishop of Rome, sought to set the record straight in the letter to Italian priests. While saying Rupnik deserves God’s love and mercy, Libanori said his victims deserve to be believed, that the full truth must still come out and that those who protected Rupnik must step up.

“Wounded and offended people, who have seen their lives ruined by the evil suffered and by complicit silence, have the right to have their dignity even publicly restored now that everything has come to light,” Libanori wrote. “We the church have a duty to seriously examine our conscience, and those who are responsible must acknowledge it and humbly ask the world to forgive the scandal.”

The Jesuits, for their part, are asking any other potential victims to come forward with claims.


The Rupnik case appears to be another instance of a charismatic religious leader who helped found a new religious community, only to later be accused of abusing those under his spiritual sway. Pope Francis has been cracking down on the unregulated explosion of such communities that blossomed after the Second Vatican Council and found favor under St. John Paul II.


Francis has launched countless investigations into individual communities, imposed outside leadership on them to implement reforms while making across-the-board term limits on governance positions in lay movements to try to prevent cults of personalities from forming.[SOURCE]

 

Bill Cooper_The Original Red Pill: Lansing, MI address, 1996_pt VI

 

Covid Tales_Dr John Campbell: China tries to flip the script on COVID origins