by WorldTribune Staff, September 16, 2025 Real World News
Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old who is charged in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, was immersed in online gaming and “furries” subcultures that attract young men but which most American adults have little knowledge of, analysts say.
The FBI is investigating Robinson’s extensive online existence to search for motives and evidence to prove their case. On Tuesday, prosecutors charged Robinson with aggravated murder, which carries the death penalty. He also was charged with felony discharge of a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison, and obstructing justice, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Utah County Attorney Jeff Gray said in announcing the charges that Robinson wrote in one text that he spent more than a week planning the attack on Kirk.
They FBI said it plans to interview “scores” of people with whom Robinson communicated in various chat groups on the online platform Discord, FBI Director Kash Patel said Monday on Fox News.
Robinson confessed to the shooting on Discord hours before he was arrested Friday, The Washington Post reported.
He told dozens of friends in one of at least two chat groups that he was the person who fatally shot Kirk on Wednesday at Utah Valley University.
“Hey guys, I have bad news for you all,” Robinson posted on Discord, according to the report. “It was me at UVU yesterday. I’m sorry for all of this.”
Analysts point to taunting messages Robinson inscribed on bullet casings and social media postings that are linked to violent gaming and nihilistic discourse. One of the engravings, lyrics to a World War II song, is used by Antifa, but the song is also heard on a popular shooter video game.
Robinson, who was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, was active in the online video gaming community on several message boards, The Washington Times reported on Monday.
Another of the bullet engravings discovered by law enforcement referenced a “furries” subculture in which Robinson participated on Reddit.
The bullet-casing messages appeared to be aimed at Robinson’s online community, a world most older adults know nothing about, said Todd E. Eberly, a political science professor at St. Mary’s College in Maryland.
“They’re communicating with and trying to connect with the members of those niche communities,” Eberly said. “And I think, to the extent that most of us aren’t aware how dark and how deep some of these communities go, we’re missing a huge part of the picture.”
Discord is understood to be cooperating with the FBI and local authorities on their investigation and has provided details about Robinson’s online presence with investigators.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said on Monday he suspects Robinson could have been “aided and abetted” by an “extended network” — alluding to “multiple warning signs” he gave leading up to the assassination.
The New York Post reported Sunday that law enforcement was already probing whether pro-trans online groups, sexualized animal-obsessed “furries,” and others connected with Robinson had advance knowledge of his alleged murderous plans.
The groups include communities on the online gaming platform Steam, as well as Armed Queers SLC, which took down its Instagram page after Kirk was assassinated.
Bongino suggested the bureau is casting an even wider net — scrutinizing whether anyone in the crowd, including possibly the TikTokker who was asking Kirk a question at the moment of his murder, knew anything about the plot.
Bongino told Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” host Bill Hemmer that FBI agents are “looking into” whether the murder of Kirk was “part of a larger effort” and could have involved people providing even financial help, or “someone who knew the specifics of it and failed to report that.”
“We’ll also be dropping a lot of paper, a lot of subpoenas out there, to take a look to see if there was any extended network,” Bongino said.
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