(Headline USA) A Wisconsin judge was set to hear arguments Friday on whether prosecutors should return to Kyle Rittenhouse the high-capacity rifle he used to shoot three people during a2020 riot in Kenosha.
Rittenhouse shot the men during the protest in Kenosha in 2020. He fatally injured felonious criminals Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, and wounded mentally unstable Antifa medic Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm.
Conservatives across the nation have praised Rittenhouse, saying he was defending Kenosha from far-left militants. Leftists claim he was a trigger-happy vigilante.
Rittenhouse argued he fired in self-defense after each of the men attacked him. A jury last year acquitted him of multiple charges, including homicide.
Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, filed a motion Jan. 19 asking prosecutors to return Rittenhouse’s rifle, his ammunition, his face mask and other clothing he was wearing the night of the shooting to him.
Richards and David Hancock, a spokesman for Rittenhouse, said last week that Rittenhouse wants to destroy the rifle and throw the rest of the items away so nothing can be used as a political symbol or trophy celebrating the shootings.
The motion hearing was before Judge Bruce Schroeder, the Kenosha County judge who presided over Rittenhouse’s trial. Hancock said Rittenhouse would not be in court for Friday’s hearing.
Rittenhouse gets cleared and is about to exit the courtroom
Judge yells out; Hey kid, you forgot this and tosses him his AR-15
Credits roll while Eye of the Tiger plays pic.twitter.com/Ibaf7sFMQh
— Miss Steak (@IntelligntSteak) November 19, 2021
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at time and living in Antioch, Illinois, was armed with an AR-15-style rifle that his friend, Dominick Black, had purchased for him earlier that year because he was too young to buy a firearm under Wisconsin law.
According to the motion, Black had agreed that the rifle would become Rittenhouse’s property on his 18th birthday, Jan. 3, 2021.
Black pleaded no contest to two citations earlier this month for contributing to the delinquency of a minor in exchange for prosecutors dropping two felony charges of intent to sell a dangerous weapon to a person younger than 18.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
