The gun Kyle Rittenhouse used during a 2020 Kenosha protest will be destroyed later this year.
The news was announced by Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger on Friday, less than two years after Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and wounded another during a night of unrest. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, obtained the gun from Dominick Black—the adult who purchased the weapon for Rittenhouse in May 2020.
“The parties – the defense, the state, and also Dominick Black, who purchased that firearm — have all signed off on a stipulation whereby the Kenosha Police Department and Joint Services will destroy that firearm, as well as the magazine, and the scope,” Binger said during a Friday court hearing, as reported by CNN. “It will not be in anyone’s possession.”
A judge approved the agreement one week after Rittenhouse’s legal team filed a motion requesting the return of all his belongings that were seized by Kenosha law enforcement. The now-19-year-old also asked that the assault-style weapon be destroyed so no one, like Black, could profit from it.
According to CNN, the destruction is expected to take place in April at a state crime lab.
Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder also ordered officials to return Rittenhouse’s $2 million bail, and approved an agreement that divides the money between Rittenhouse’s attorneys, and an organization that launched Rittenhouse’s defense fund.
Rittenhouse was arrested in late August 2020, after he shot and killed 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum and 26-year-old Anthony Huber during a Black Lives Matter protest. Rittenhouse, who also wounded 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz that night, said he had traveled from his Illinois home to Wisconsin to protect buildings from being looted. He was arrested shortly after the incident, and was hit with multiple charges, including intentional homicide.
Rittenhouse claimed he opened fire on the men because he believed his life was in danger. A jury determined he had acted in self-defense, and acquitted him back in November.
