Judge unseals ATF report in Charlie Kirk assassination case

Tyler Robinson, center, accused in the fatal shooting of Charlie Kirk, appears during a hearing in 4th District Court on January 16, 2026 in Provo, Utah. Prosecutors have charged Tyler Robinson with aggravated murder and plan to seek the death penalty.

The Utah judge handling the case against Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, has just announced a ballistics report that showed that the bullet fragment could not be definitively linked to the suspected murder weapon — though the spent casing was confirmed as a match.

Prosecutors stated that a separate testing has found that the DNA on Robinson’s gun was also found on the towel that was wrapped around the rifle, along with three out of four rounds inside the gun.

Although the report from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had been made public in previous court proceedings, the document itself has now been released from the court, and it includes additional details.

Judge Tony Graf 

 

determined that there was no basis to keep the filing classified, as it found that it did not contain any “private or inflammatory information.”

The tested materials included a “deformed/damaged” piece of the bullet jacket along with four lead fragments that were partially included as an exhibit in a defense motion filed under seal on January 9^th, which asked the judge to hinder the government from conducting further testing until a defense expert could examine and document the evidence.

The ATF report noted “inconclusive” findings which mean that “an examiner’s opinion that there is an insufficient quality and/or quantity of individual characteristics to identify or exclude.”

Two law enforcement sources that were well-versed in the investigation also told Fox News in March that the reason the AFT was unsuccessful at matching the bullet to the rifle was due to the bullet breaking apart on impact with Kirk’s body.

 

“It is not a win for the defense,” said retired Federal Bureau of Investigation (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 unresolved findings 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.”

 

The ATF inspected a .30-06 cartridge case that investigators wrote “was identified as having been fired in the Exhibit 1 rifle,” the suspected murder weapon, Robinson’s Mauser. The agent found damaged fragments as .30-caliber class, which is consistent with Robinson’s rifle, though there was insufficient evidence to reach a definitive match.

“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.

Robinson is accused of shooting Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in September 2025. He reportedly climbed onto a roof that was across the courtyard from where Kirk was speaking to a crowd of roughly 3,000 people. Robinson then allegedly fired a single shot from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle that struck Kirk in the neck — leading to his tragic death.

 

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

Later on, police had found the rifle wrapped in towel in the woods near the campus. Prosecutors alleged that text messages between Robinson and his romantic partner, Lance Twiggs, had discussed how to retrieve the rifle.

“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.”

As of today, Twiggs is cooperating with investigators, but has not yet been charged with the crime.

Furthermore, Robinson is scheduled to appear in court on Friday for a hearing on his motion to exclude news cameras from future proceedings. He could face the death penalty if convicted of the charges against him.