Kenosha shootings: Teenager is found not guilty and asked for his firearm back by the court
Kyle Rittenhouse is now trying to return his gun to the Wisconsin prosecutors. They tried unsuccessfully for him to be convicted of murder and other charges in relation to the shooting deaths of three others during the August 2020 riots in Kenosha.
Mark Richards, a lawyer for Rittenhouse, filed a motion on Wednesday for the return of his client’s gun and other property – including ammunition, an iPhone, clothing, a $1 bill, and a face mask. His spokesman David Hancock texted a reporter earlier this week indicating that Rittenhouse intends to destroy the semi-automatic rifle, a Smith & Wesson M&P 15.
“Two people did lose their lives, period,”Hancock stated. “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.”
Although the 19-year-old doesn’t want the weapon, he apparently doesn’t want to leave it in the hands of the prosecutors who tried to send him to prison for shooting three rioters – two of them fatally – amid a Black Lives Matter protest that spiraled into a riot. After testifying in self defense, Rittenhouse was cleared by the jury on November 2.
The case against Rittenhouse ended November 19, but his rifle was still being held as evidence in the prosecution of Dominick Black, a friend who purchased the gun on Rittenhouse’s behalf in April 2020. Rittenhouse was just 17 years old at the time. Black was charged for the delivery of a weapon to minors and causing death.
Black reached a plea agreement with the prosecutors earlier this month. He was able to get out of jail and plead not guilty to two non-criminal charges for contributing to delinquency. If Rittenhouse, Black or both had been found guilty, then the guns would have been confiscated by prosecutors.
Politicians used the Rittenhouse case as a lightning rod. Democrats and detractors painted Rittenhouse as a racist vigilante, while his supporters saw him as a patriotic patriot who stood up for lawlessness. Hancock said Rittenhouse doesn’t want to let the rifle become a trophy for either side.
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