Kyle Rittenhouse wants his AR-15 style rifle back, along with several items taken by authorities during his arrest.- He said he wants to destroy the items so they can't be used to "celebrate" the
Kenosha shootings.
Kyle Rittenhouse is seeking the return of the gun he used in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in a motion filed by his lawyer with the Kenosha County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
Rittenhouse, 19, has also asked for the return of several items taken from him upon his arrest — ammo for the rifle, a firearm sling, a gun magazine, an iPhone, his cloth face mask, a $1 bill, and the clothes he was wearing on the night of the shooting, Kenosha News first reported.
According to the court filing, the teenager intends to destroy the weapon, echoing his words from last November when he said on a podcast: "We don't want anything to do with that." Rittenhouse said at the time the rifle was being "destroyed right now," though this his new request appears to contradict that statement.
He fatally shot two people with the AR-15 rifle and injured a third during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha on August 25, 2020. Rittenhouse turned himself in several hours later in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois.
Rittenhouse said he went to Kenosha to protect property from rioters and acted in self-defense. In November, a jury acquitted him on five felony charges, including first-degree intentional homicide.
His spokesperson, David Hancock, said on Thursday that Rittenhouse wants the weapon destroyed and plans to dispose of the clothing so that the items can't be used to "celebrate" the shootings, the Associated Press reported.
"At the end of the day, two people did lose their lives, period," Hancock said, per the AP. "That weapon was involved in that. That weapon doesn't belong on a mantle. It doesn't belong in a museum. It belongs where Kyle wants it, and Kyle wants it destroyed.
"There's plenty of people out there who would like to hold these items up, on both sides. That's nothing Kyle's interested in," he continued.
The gun was purchased for Rittenhouse by his friend Dominic Black using Rittenhouse's money. At the time, Rittenhouse was only 17 and too young to buy a firearm, while Black was 18.
In 2020, Black was arrested and charged with two counts of delivering a dangerous weapon to a minor resulting in death.
He agreed to plead no contest to contributing to the delinquency of a minor in exchange for the Kenosha County District Attorney's office dropping two felony charges of intent to sell a dangerous weapon to a person younger than 18. Black was given a $2,000 fine and no jail time.
A court hearing for the return of Rittenhouse's items is set for January 28, according to records seen by Insider.