A look into the online subcultures tied to Charlie Kirk’s accused killer
PBS News Hour - Segments
PBS NewsHour
4.1 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2025
⏱️ 7 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | As investigators continue to seek answers about what drove the young man accused of killing conservative activist Charlie Kirk, |
| 0:08.0 | conspiracies about who he is and what he believed are flourishing. |
| 0:12.0 | William Brigham takes a closer look at what we know about the suspect's life online. |
| 0:17.0 | One focal point for investigators are the inscriptions carved onto the bullet casings that were believed to be owned by the alleged shooter. |
| 0:26.6 | They contain a number of seemingly sarcastic, irreverent phrases that are common in gaming and online communities. |
| 0:33.6 | Phrases like Bella Chow and Hey Fascist Catch and a series of arrows, up, right, and several |
| 0:40.6 | pointing down. So to help us decipher what those inscriptions might mean, we turn to Ryan |
| 0:46.4 | Broderick. He's the author of the newsletter called Garbage Day and host of the podcast, |
| 0:51.5 | Panic World. Ryan Broderick, thank you so much for being here. |
| 0:56.7 | We heard earlier today the latest on the investigation into this alleged shooter, |
| 1:02.3 | but I want to ask you about those bullet casings. |
| 1:04.6 | They clearly imply that the suspect lived a very, very online internet-focused life, heavily steeped in gaming |
| 1:13.3 | in these subcultures. |
| 1:15.1 | From your expertise, what can we glean by what was written on those bullet casings? |
| 1:20.5 | Well, the bullet that struck and killed Charlie Kirk allegedly had a phrase of a very common |
| 1:27.1 | meme written on it. It is part of a subculture |
| 1:30.1 | called furries. They are people who dress up in animal costumes. And this screenshot has been |
| 1:35.5 | traveling around the internet forever. It doesn't mean that Robinson is a member of that subculture, |
| 1:40.8 | but he is of an age where he would have grown up online seeing it everywhere. |
| 1:45.0 | It's a bit of what they would call cringe humor. |
| 1:47.9 | The other bullets recovered by law enforcement include a reference to the satirical, |
| 1:52.9 | the fascist video game, Hell Divers 2. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PBS NewsHour, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PBS NewsHour and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

