Kyle Rittenhouse Is Destroying Rifle Used in Kenosha Shooting
After his recent acquittal on multiple homicide charges, Kyle Rittenhouse decided the firearm he used in the August 2020 shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, had to be destroyed.
Rittenhouse was charged with five felonies, including two counts of homicide and one count of attempted homicide, after fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during protests in Kenosha following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. He was facing the possibility of decades in prison, but a jury found him not guilty of all charges on November 19 after a contentious trial.
In a new interview with Charlie Kirk on his podcast The Charlie Kirk Show, conducted with Jack Posobiec, a senior editor at the Human Events website, Rittenhouse, 18, confirmed that he was having the gun destroyed.
During the trial, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger held the firearm used in the shootings up to his shoulder in a courtroom demonstration. During the interview with Kirk, Rittenhouse criticized Binger for putting his finger on the trigger while holding the rifle, saying the demonstration wasn't "Gun Safety 101."
He said that the weapon is being "destroyed right now," adding, "We don't want anything to do with that."
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, about 15 miles away. He was accused of being a vigilante who came to Kenosha to cause trouble during the protests, but he said he was trying to help protect businesses and brought a first aid kit to help treat people who might have been wounded.
Shortly before midnight, Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 26. In successfully defending their client, Rittenhouse's attorneys argued he wasn't the aggressor and had acted in self-defense.
Rittenhouse took the stand during the trial, a move that some saw as ill-advised, but he told Kirk he had always planned to tell his side of the story. He said his lead attorney, Mark Richards, told him early on that he would have to testify and that they'd been preparing for cross-examination for more than a year by conducting mock trials.
Prosecutors in the Rittenhouse trial came under criticism for letting their case fall apart, as many thought the defense made more compelling arguments throughout the trial.
Early in the trial, Grosskreutz admitted Rittenhouse shot him after he had pointed a handgun at the 17-year-old. Ryan Balch, a prosecution witness, also testified that Rosenbaum said he intended to kill Rittenhouse.
While the trial may have kept viewers on the edge of their seats while the jury deliberated, Rittenhouse told Kirk he knew that the attorneys "didn't have a case" during the prosecution's opening statements. However, he added that despite his seemingly calm demeanor, he was "freaking out" behind the scenes during the trial.
