In a phone interview with the Washington Post, Kyle Rittenhouse explained how the gun he used to shoot protesters was purchased by a friend with stimulus money in the form of unemployment funds.
Rittenhouse was charged and arrested for shooting three protesters, two fatally, on August 25, during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse was 17 and unable to legally purchase a gun by himself, so a friend made the purchase for him. Prosecutors have charged a Wisconsin man with supplying the gun.
Online court records show prosecutors in Kenosha charged 19-year-old Dominick Black on Nov. 3 with two felony counts of supplying a dangerous weapon to a minor causing death. Black, who was 18 at the time of the purchase, told authorities that he purchased the weapon at a hardware store in Wisconsin. He could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted on both counts.
According to Antioch police reports, Black’s stepfather said Black bought the gun for Rittenhouse in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, using Rittenhouse’s money but put the gun in his own name.
Black told police that when they went to his stepfather’s house he was concerned about Rittenhouse having the gun because he wasn’t 18, but if he told Rittenhouse he couldn’t have it Rittenhouse “would have thrown a fit,” according to the reports.
