Wisconsin Crime Lab Destroys Kyle Rittenhouse Rifle

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin officials have destroyed the rifle Kyle Rittenhouse used to shoot three people during street protests in Kenosha in 2020.

WISN-TV reported Friday that the state crime lab destroyed the rifle on Feb. 25. The station posted video showing technicians unboxing the gun and feeding into a shredder.

Rittenhouse’s attorneys and prosecutors agreed in January that the gun would be destroyed, Rittenhouse’s lead attorney, Mark Richards, said Rittenhouse didn’t want someone to buy it and turn it into a trophy. The agreement called for the process to be recorded.

Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz during the protests in August 2020. The demonstrations began after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, during a domestic disturbance. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down.

Prosecutors filed multiple charges against Rittenhouse. A jury acquitted him on all counts in November after he argued all three men attacked him and he was forced to fire in self-defense.

Rittenhouse was 17 at the time of the protests, too young to buy a firearm in Wisconsin. His friend, Dominick Black, bought the gun for him earlier that year. Black pleaded no contest in January to contributing to the delinquency of a minor.