The individual accused of the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk had ammunition marked with references to fascism, as well as obscure internet memes and video games, according to authorities on Friday.

Utah’s Governor Spencer Cox stated that markings were discovered on at least four shell casings linked to 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, who was apprehended Friday morning in relation to the murder. One inscription read, “Hey fascist! Catch! ↑ → ↓↓↓,” which seems to reference a video game.

Officials reported that these engraved casings were discovered with a Mauser Model 98 bolt-action rifle, equipped with a scope. This weapon was found in a wooded area near Utah Valley University’s campus, covered with a dark towel.

In addition to the engraving referencing fascists, Cox also referred to engravings that contained more obscure references.

On the fired casing, for instance, a message read: “notices, bulges, OWO, what’s this?”

The inscription appears to relate to a meme associated with the online furry subculture and role-playing, according to Jamie Cohen, a media studies assistant professor at Queens College who studies memes. The meme is often utilized for mockery and trolling, though its connection to Kirk or the shooting remains uncertain.

Specialists warn against over-interpreting these inscriptions, noting that shooters often employ misleading or ironic messages that blend politics with internet culture, making them difficult to pigeonhole.

Cohen said he believes the messages on most of the recovered rounds were left purposely vague by a person who is “extremely online.”

The suspect may have specifically used terms that are difficult to decipher “to remain in the undercurrent of the internet,” he said.

“This meme type is specifically designed to ensure it cannot be adequately reported by the media, stemming from a deeply online perspective,” he explained.

Bond Benton, a Montclair State University professor who studies social media, branding, popular culture and online hate groups, said the memes come off as incoherent to most people but are embraced by those in niche online spaces.

“This sort of messaging could be sort of a wink to those people because notoriety, being the most talked about in that space, is really, really valuable to members that are of these communities,” he said.

Lindsay Hahn, a University at Buffalo associate professor who researches ideological extremism and the ways in which perpetrators of violence justify their actions, said the suspect was likely seeking fame.

His messages, she said, do not necessarily indicate a specific ideology. “But what they do indicate,” she said, “is that the shooter wanted to get a message across and therefore be talked about online.”

“It sort of seems like these messages, at the very minimum, were selected because he knew they were going to be talked about,” Hahn added.

At the Friday-morning news conference, when asked by a reporter what the messages meant, Cox said: “I will leave that up to you to interpret what those engravings mean.”

The governor said the one referring to fascists “speaks for itself.”

That particular unfired casing was also inscribed with additional symbols — an up arrow, a right arrow and three down arrows. The order of directional arrow symbols is a code used in the hit video game Helldivers 2 to summon a bomb on the player’s position.

The video game challenges players to work together as an elite team of soldiers to save Earth by pushing back invading hordes of space bugs, cyborgs and robots. Last year, it reinvigorated a long-running debate about fascism and satire.

Cox said another message read, “Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao.” Cohen said this may be a reference to lyrics in a somewhat controversial Italian song that is anti-fascist in nature.

A fourth casing appeared simply to mock investigators. “If you read this, you are gay LMAO,” it read, using a well-known abbreviation for “laughing my a– off.”

It’s not clear what political perspectives Robinson held from other publicly available materials. In 2021, Robinson registered to vote with no party affiliation. Photos posted by Robinson’s mother on Facebook show him dressed up in a Halloween costume in 2017 riding on Trump’s shoulders.

Robinson joins a long list of shooting suspects from the last decade who have referenced memes, online subcultures and video games in their writings. Some have been explicit in their ideological messaging, while others have engaged in the online practice of trolling, using sarcasm and deliberately confusing references that make their ideologies hard to interpret.

The texts of many shooters who have been radicalized online are highly referential to each other.

The person who killed 51 people at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, left behind writings that mixed political ideologies with memes and jokes attributing his radicalization to child video games. Another portion of the writings credited Candace Owens with his radicalization, which has widely been interpreted as satire. The gunman in a 2022 Buffalo, New York, mass shooting mixed racist memes with racist ideology, like the “great replacement theory,” and also plagiarized materials from other writings of mass shooters, making the line between his views and the views of others blurry.

In August, the suspect in a Minneapolis Catholic school shooting left a video referencing a hodgepodge of political messages and memes, from “release the files!” to skibidi toilet, that don’t appear to represent a coherent ideology.

“Oftentimes this extremely online disguise is meant to be doublespeak,” Cohen said. “It’s meant specifically for someone like me to dive into what they would call meme culture and declare them something so that they get more press. So it could just be another bait and switch for researchers who are falling into the same trap that they are designing for more viral exposure.”

Similarly, the practice of writing on ammunition and weaponry has also become a theme among shooters.

Officials say the person accused of shooting and killing a health care CEO in Manhattan appeared to have left an explicit reference — “deny,” “defend” and “depose” — to a 2010 book that was critical of the health insurance industry on the ammunition used to kill the CEO of UnitedHealth Group.

Robinson was detained Thursday night, FBI Director Kash Patel said. Cox said one of the suspect’s family members reached out to a family friend Thursday night, who then contacted the Washington County Sheriff’s Office with information that Robinson had either confessed or implied that he had carried out the shooting.

Investigators interviewed a member of the suspect’s family, who said he had become more political in recent years, according to Cox. The person said Robinson recently told them that Kirk was coming to UVU and the pair discussed how they didn’t like Kirk and the viewpoints he held.

Robinson has not yet been charged. He is expected to be charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice, according to a probable cause affidavit.