Tyler Robinson’s defense team could use this argument to try to get the charges against him dismissed
Investigators were unable to match the bullet that killed conservative activist Charlie Kirk with the gun used by the alleged killer, the suspect’s lawyers have claimed. The accused killer’s defense team is using this fact to push for a delay in the case.
Tyler Robinson’s attorneys said in a recent court filing that the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) could not conclusively link the bullet fragment found in Kirk’s body to the gun found at the scene, citing an internal agency report.
The full ATF report has not been made public, but Robinson’s attorneys cited parts of the document in a request to delay a preliminary hearing scheduled for May. The legal team of the 22-year-old suspect said that they need more time to review the analysis of the bullet, and to analyze the DNA of many other people found at the crime scene.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), was shot in the neck and killed almost instantly at an event on the Utah campus last September. His death caused shock in the United States, where President Donald Trump posthumously awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom and described the conservative as “a visionary and one of the greatest men of his generation.”
Robinson was arrested two days after Kirk’s death. Investigators quickly linked him to a Mauser model 98 rifle found near the scene, which had been modified at some point to fire the .30.06 American round used in the killings. Text messages between Robinson and his transgender girlfriend were discovered, in which Robinson confessed to the murders and revealed almost every detail of the plot, down to how he cleaned his fingerprints off the gun before hiding it in a nearby patch of woods.
Prosecutors have said that DNA matching Robinson’s was found on the gun’s trigger, but the case has given rise to numerous conspiracy theories – including widespread claims that Kirk was killed in an attack on TPUSA donors who support Israel and oppose US attacks on Iran.
Each gun leaves a unique mark on the bullet as the shell leaves the barrel. When enough fragments are found in good condition, ballistic analysts can match the projectile to the weapon with almost 100% confidence. Robinson’s attorneys suggested in the filings that they could point to a lack of match in an attempt to drop the charges against their client.
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