Police investigate after bullet casings engraved with ‘die f*g’ left outside LGBTQ+ centre

A grassroots LGBTQ+ centre was forced to close its doors for the day after bullet casings engraved with homophobic slurs were reportedly left on its doorstep.

Springfield police are investigating after the threatening message was found outside the Missouri-based nonprofit GLO Center’s office on Monday (22 September).

The community group’s executive director, Aaron Schekorra, reportedly found two bullets outside the centre’s doors when opening up for the day.

He told NPR that, after bringing the items inside, his team noticed they were engraved with threatening homophobic messages.

“There’s a word on each of them,” he said. “One of them says in all caps ‘DIE,’ and the other one says a slur for queer people, and it starts with an ‘f,’ that I’d rather not repeat.

“At this point, we realised that these were left – they were left intentionally in front of our building using language that’s meant to attack our community.”

Schekorra said he made the decision to close the centre for the day and filed a report with the Springfield Police Department.

It comes after bullet casings engraved with a variety of messages were found at the scene of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk’s murder.

Kirk, 31, died after being shot in the neck during a debate on gun violence in Utah. The alleged shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, faces the death penalty over aggravated murder charges.

After the bullets were found, several right-wing political figures falsely associated the messages with “transgender ideology,” though experts have denied the engravings indicate a political belief or leaning.

In the wake of Kirk’s shooting, right-wing politicians and pundits have also routinely tried to push a conspiracy theory that trans people are responsible for the majority of mass shooting in the US.

This is not true. According to research, of the 3,708 mass shooting incidents in the US since 2015, only an estimated 16 were committed by out trans people.

Despite this, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt suggested earlier this week that so-called “transgender violence” was “worth looking into.“

“The administration is taking it seriously, all causes of violence, and why these people would be driven to such evil and such hatred, and there’s probably many answers to that question,” she said. “The administration is focused on all of them.”

Bullet casings are a ‘threat to our community,’ GLO director says

Springfield Police Department (SPD) spokesperson, Cris Swaters, said on Monday afternoon that the investigation into the bullets found at the GLO Center is ongoing.

The LGBTQ+ organisation cancelled its annual meeting scheduled for later that day and will discuss what to do about the upcoming Pride on C-Street event this weekend, which GLO is set to attend.

Schekorra said that, while he was eager not to let the threat get in the way of their activism, he wanted to ensure the team did so safely.

“[The bullet casings are] also kind of a threat against our community and our identities,” he said. “It’s important that we let folks know so they can make the best decision for themselves … at the end of the day, you have to do what’s best for our community.”