ATF ballistics report unsealed in Charlie Kirk assassination case

The Utah judge overseeing the case against Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin Tyler Robinson has unsealed a ballistics report from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that could not conclusively match a bullet fragment to the suspected murder weapon but confirmed a match with the spent casing.

Prosecutors have alleged that separate testing found DNA consistent with Robinson’s on the gun, on the towel and on three of the four rounds inside.

The report’s conclusions had already been made public in prior court proceedings, but the document itself is now available from the court, and it includes some new details.

The tested material includes a “deformed/damaged” piece of the bullet jacket as well as four lead fragments.

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It was attached, in part, as an exhibit alongside a defense motion filed under seal on Jan. 9, asking the judge to block the government from further testing until a defense expert had a chance to examine and photograph the evidence.

Judge Tony Graf ruled that there was no basis to keep the filing classified, finding that it did not contain any “private or inflammatory information.”

An appendix to the ATF report explained that “inconclusive” findings mean that was “an examiner’s opinion that there is an insufficient quality and/or quantity of individual characteristics to identify or exclude.”

Two law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told Fox News last month that the reason the ATF was unable to match the bullet to the rifle is because when the bullet impacted Kirk’s body it hit bone and broke on impact. 

Experts said this is not uncommon.

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Read the filing:

“It is not a win for the defense,” said retired FBI supervisory agent Jason Pack. “It is simply a gap the prosecution is now working to address by bringing in the FBI with more advanced technology.”

Ballistics are rarely the only piece of evidence in a homicide case, he added. And the inconclusive finding only applied to the fragment, not the casing or the rifle found near the scene.

“The defense here is doing exactly what good defense lawyers are supposed to do, protecting their client’s ability to challenge evidence before it gets further altered,” Pack told Fox News Digital. “That is not a sign the prosecution’s case is weak.”

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The ATF also examined a .30-06 cartridge case that investigators wrote “was identified as having been fired in the Exhibit 1 rifle.” That’s the suspected murder weapon, Robinson’s Mauser.

“We are a long way from trial, and the public should pump the brakes before drawing big conclusions from a single pre-trial motion about a single bullet fragment​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​,” Pack added.

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Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in September 2025. He allegedly climbed to a rooftop across the courtyard from where Kirk was speaking and fired a single shot from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle.

Gruesome video shows the bullet struck Kirk in the neck in front of a crowd of roughly 3,000 people. He died from the injury.

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Prosecutors have said campus police found marks left behind on the gravel rooftop moments after the shooting “consistent with a sniper having lain [there] — impressions in the gravel potentially left by the elbows, knees and feet of a person in a prone shooting position.”

Police recovered the rifle wrapped in a blanket in a patch of woods near campus. And prosecutors have said that text messages between Robinson and his romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, allegedly discuss wanting to retrieve the rifle.

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“Stuck in Orem for a little while longer yet,” Robinson allegedly wrote in the hours after the murder. “Shouldn’t be long until I can come home, but I gotta grab my rifle still.”

Twiggs is cooperating with investigators and has not been charged with a crime.

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Robinson is due in court Friday for a hearing on his motion to exclude news cameras from future proceedings.

He could face the death penalty if convicted of the top charge against him, aggravated murder.