Kyle Rittenhouse to retrieve gun used in fatal shootings?
Rittenhouse filed paperwork to retrieve items seized by the police after his arrest which include the gun he used in the shootings that killed 3 men.
-
Kyle Rittenhouse in his trial (AP)
After being acquitted of all charges after murdering two men and wounding another during police brutality protests in Wisconsin last year, Kyle Rittenhouse may be getting the gun he used in the fatal attack back.
Rittenhouse, 18, who claimed the shootings were in self-defense, testified during the two-week trial that he shot the three men with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle after allegedly being attacked.
On January 19, Rittenhouse's lawyer Mark Richards filed a motion asking for the return of his assault-style rifle used in the fatal shootings, in addition to his ammunition, face mask, and clothing he wore the night of the incidents.
Judge Bruce Schroeder, the Kenosha County judge who presided over Rittenhouse's trial, presided over the motion hearing.
Read more: Kyle Rittenhouse: The White-Only American Dream (Part I)
Last Thursday, Richards and David Hancock, a spokesperson for Rittenhouse, stated that Rittenhouse intends to destroy the weapon, as well as the items he had the night of the attacks, to not "be used as a political symbol or trophy." The gun was bought for him by a friend, Dominick Black, who joined Rittenhouse in a militia to protect a used car lot on the night of August 25.
Black had agreed the rifle would become Rittenhouse's when he turned 18 in January 2021.
Civil unrest erupted in Kenosha, a city of 100,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan, in August 2020 after a white policeman shot a black man, Jacob Blake, several times during an arrest, leaving him paralyzed.
In right-wing and pro-gun circles, Rittenhouse, who claimed he went to Kenosha to protect businesses from arsonists and looters and act as a medic, was hailed as a heroic figure.
