The defense team for Charlie Kirk shooting suspect Tyler Robinson has alleged that the rifle found by authorities does not match the bullet that killed the Turning Point USA founder.
As reported by TMZ, Robinson’s defense team alleged in legal documents that ballistic evidence doesn’t line up with the recovered rifle, which prosecutors claimed was the firearm the suspect used to fatally shoot Kirk in September, 2025. According to Robinson’s attorneys, a report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives was “unable to identify the bullet recovered at autopsy to the rifle allegedly tied to Mr. Robinson.”
The 22-year-old man has been charged with aggravated murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. He was apprehended hours after Kirk was shot in the neck during an outdoor campus debate at Utah Valley University.
“Although the State has not indicated an intent to produce this report at the preliminary hearing, the defense may very well decide to offer the testimony of the ATF firearm analyst as exculpatory evidence,” reads the motion filed by his defense team. Other categories of forensic evidence are reportedly incomplete according to Robinson’s attorneys, who argued that certain evidence can’t be presented as reliable if it makes it to court.
Robinson’s team added that it has received a significant amount of evidence from prosecutors, including 61,500 pages of documents, 31 hours of audio, and over 700 hours of video. They argued that it will take at least 60 days for them to properly assess the evidence. The team also said that they want the trial to be televised. “Keeping court proceedings as public as possible helps to quell and contradict the tide of misinformation,” they argued.
