The Utah judge overseeing the case against Charlie Kirk’s accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, on Thursday unsealed a ballistics report from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives after the report was unable to definitively match a bullet fragment to the suspected murder weapon but confirmed a match with the spent casing.
Prosecutors allege that separate testing found DNA consistent with Robinson’s on the gun, a towel, and three of the four rounds found inside the weapon. While the conclusions of the report had already been made public in prior court proceedings, the full document is now available from the court and includes additional details, Fox News reported.
The tested material includes a “deformed/damaged” piece of the bullet jacket and four lead fragments, said the outlet.
The text was included as an exhibit with a defense motion that was filed under seal on January 9. This motion requested that the judge prevent the government from conducting any further testing until a defense expert had the opportunity to examine and photograph the evidence.
Judge Tony Graf ruled that there was no reason to keep the filing classified, as he found it did not contain any “private or inflammatory information.”
An appendix to the ATF report clarified that “inconclusive” findings meant it 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 informed Fox News last month that the reason the ATF was unable to match the bullet to the rifle is that the bullet broke upon impacting Kirk’s body due to hitting bone. Experts noted that this occurrence is not uncommon.
“It is not a win for the defense,” retired FBI supervisory agent Jason Pack told Fox. “It is simply a gap the prosecution is now working to address by bringing in the FBI with more advanced technology.”
Ballistics are seldom the sole evidence in a homicide case. Furthermore, the inconclusive finding applied only to the fragment, not the casing or the rifle discovered near the scene, Fox News added.
“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. “That is not a sign the prosecution’s case is weak.”
The ATF also examined a .30-06 cartridge case that investigators wrote “was identified as having been fired in the Exhibit 1 rifle” – Robinson’s suspected murder weapon, the Mauser. The agent identified damaged fragments as .30-caliber, which is consistent with Robinson’s rifle, although not definitive for a conclusive 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 facing charges for allegedly shooting Kirk during a Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University in September 2025. Reportedly, he climbed onto a rooftop overlooking the courtyard where Kirk was delivering his speech and fired a single round from his grandfather’s Mauser rifle.
Disturbing footage captures the moment the bullet struck Kirk in the neck, all in front of an audience of about 3,000 people. Kirk died from his wound.
Prosecutors have noted in filings throughout the case that campus police found marks left behind on the gravel rooftop moments after the shooting that were “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.”
Fox added: “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.”