Unsealed ATF Report Includes New Ballistics Details From Charlie Kirk Investigation

The judge presiding over a case against Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin has ordered a report from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to be unsealed, offering a rare glimpse into an investigation that has fueled rampant public speculation.

As Fox News reported, the details revolve around Kirk’s autopsy, in particular the bullet fragments recovered in the process:

The report’s conclusions had already been made public in prior court proceedings, but the document itself is now available from the court, and it includes some new details.

The tested material includes a “deformed/damaged” piece of the bullet jacket as well as four lead fragments.

It was attached, in part, as an exhibit alongside a defense motion filed under seal on Jan. 9, asking the judge to block the government from further testing until a defense expert had a chance to examine and photograph the evidence.

Judge Tony Graf ruled that there was no basis to keep the filing classified, finding that it did not contain any “private or inflammatory information.”

An appendix to the ATF report explained that “inconclusive” findings mean that 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 told Fox News last month that the reason the ATF was unable to match the bullet to the rifle is because when the bullet impacted Kirk’s body it hit bone and broke on impact.

BREAKING: An ATF report in the Charlie Kirk murder case is out — and it found that the bullet that killed Kirk was a .30-caliber class fragment — consistent with Robinson's Mauser 98.

But it was so deformed that analysts couldn't make a definitive match.

Result: inconclusive.… pic.twitter.com/s3z3xsdN1t

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) April 16, 2026

Here’s the full post from above:

BREAKING: An ATF report in the Charlie Kirk murder case is out — and it found that the bullet that killed Kirk was a .30-caliber class fragment — consistent with Robinson’s Mauser 98.

But it was so deformed that analysts couldn’t make a definitive match.

Result: inconclusive.

The ATF lab described finding “one .30-caliber class deformed/damaged bullet jacket fragment and four lead fragments.”

What prosecutors CAN prove: the fired cartridge case was positively ID’d as fired from Robinson’s rifle.

And toolmarks on the casings match a rotary engraving tool — like the Dremel seized from Robinson’s home.

Now the State wants to go further — running new Virtual Comparison Microscopy (VCM) technology and “metallurgical” testing on the fragments.

PS — to everyone who said it wasn’t a .30 caliber bullet: the ATF disagrees.

This marks the latest chapter in an ongoing narrative surrounding the ammunition used to kill Kirk:

NEW: Defense attorneys for Tyler Robinson, the 22-year-old charged with assassinating Charlie Kirk, say the ATF could not conclusively connect the bullet fragment recovered during the autopsy to the Mauser Model 98 rifle found near the scene.

Harris Faulkner: “The FBI is running… pic.twitter.com/mcicPL3afp

— RedWave Press (@RedWavePress) March 31, 2026

BREAKING THIS MORNING

Utah County Sherriff Nate Brooksby, who helped arrange for Charlie Kirk ass*ssin Tyler Robinson to turn himself in, has just abruptly RESIGNED.

This following the shocking revelation in a new court filing claiming the ATF couldn’t tie the fatal bullet to… pic.twitter.com/Lrnies9KbB

— Conservative Brief (@ConservBrief) March 31, 2026

Breitbart provided some additional context:

Legal commentator Andrea Burkhart pointed out, “The jacket fragment shared class characteristics with Tyler Robinson’s Mauser 98 rifle, so the rifle couldn’t be excluded as having fired the bullet. But the fragment lacks individual characteristics permitting identification of one rifle to the exclusion of all others in the class.”

Utah has informed the legal team for alleged Kirk assassin Tyler Robinson that “The FBI lab intends to conduct Virtual Comparison Microscopy (VCM) analysis on the bullet jacket fragment to examine any markings that the rifle imparted to the fragment. This analysis is non-destructive and employs technology to capture multiple scans of the object.”

In a court filing, Utah noted that “The State also intends to conduct metallurgical testing on at least one of the recovered lead fragments. This testing involves taking a small scraping from the fragment. The examiner will document the area from which the scraping is taken. The examiner will not take a scraping from an area that would affect additional ballistics analysis through either VCM or LCM analysis.”

Here’s how the Charlie Kirk Show responded to the latest revelations: