The Wire - September 12, 2025

//The Wire//2300Z September 12, 2025//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CHARLIE KIRK ASSASSIN ALLEGEDLY APPREHENDED, AS MORE DETAILS IN THE CASE AND ADDITIONAL SUSPECTS POSSIBLY BECOME INVOLVED. ANNAPOLIS SHOOTING DISCOVERED TO BE THE RESULT OF HOAX CALL, ONE MIDSHIPMAN WOUNDED IN FRIENDLY-FIRE.//

 -----BEGIN TEARLINE-----

-HomeFront-

Utah: This morning federal authorities confirmed that one individual was in custody who is assessed to have been Charlie Kirk's assassin. Tyler Robinson was physically detained at his home by his father, who turned him in after recognizing him as the shooter.

This afternoon, during a press conference, Utah Governor Spencer Cox conveyed additional information that was compiled by the FBI on the shooting. He stated that text messages were recovered between the alleged shooter, and his roommate. During an interview with the FBI, the alleged killer's roommate volunteered to show investigators Discord messages between himself and the shooter. These messages involved the shooter stating that he needed to recover the rifle from a drop point located in a bush, wrapped in a towel. Additional messages were noted referencing engraving bullets.

Analyst Comment: Information manipulation is already well out of control regarding this individual. For example, earlier today a Twitter/X account posted a photoshopped version of a photo of the suspected killer, which depicted Robinson wearing a Trump t-shirt, with the caption "Tired of these terrorists". The same exact account owned up to their fake information, but as this account has over 5 million followers, the damage had already been done. Robinson has zero ties to any sort of conservative politician or party, all of his associations are via politically left organizations.

Nevertheless this is a common tactic used by many organizations; posting two messages/photos at nearly the same time, one of which is fake and the other either an apology or a correction. The fake content gets boosted in the algorithm and amplified everywhere, but the quiet correction never makes the rounds. This is a very tired tactic to evade both being banned on social media, along with criminal prosecution. In the age of AI, there are probably tens of millions of people who are seeing these fake images (not just from this one account, but many others as well), and due to everyone being in their own ideological bubble, there are significant efforts underway to make people think the shooter was a "far-right terrorist", instead of the overwhelming evidence that suggests otherwise.

-----END TEARLINE-----

Analyst Comments: Yesterday's reported shooting at the US Naval Academy turned out to be another hoax like the other reported shootings, but the response to the hoax involved the friendly-fire shooting of one student. Authorities state that a former student at the Academy made threats of violence online, though he was able to spoof his IP address (or conduct some similar effort) to make it appear as though he was still at the Academy. A campus-wide alert was sent out regarding the threats, and initial reports circulated among students that the shooter was attempting to pose as a police officer to gain access to more victims. In reality, the individual that was spotted was a genuine police officer, one of the first to arrive on scene, working to clear the facility of threats. This resulted in a case of mistaken identity that resulted in the real shooting taking place. When the officer was attempting to gain entry to one building, a Midshipman attempted to beat the officer to death with a non-functioning parade rifle, thinking that he was the shooter. This Midshipman was shot in the arm by the officer, with the officer thinking that *he* was the shooter. After the Midshipman was shot, the situation of mistaken identity became clear, and the Midshipman was airlifted to a local area hospital, where he his expected to survive.