Kyle Rittenhouse wasn't old enough to have bought the rifle he allegedly used to shoot three people during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two. But as he tells The Washington Post, and as court charges back up, he had an older friend buy the weapon using money Rittenhouse got from a government stimulus program.
As part of an investigation into what went on in Kenosha that August night, the Post talked to Rittenhouse for his first public interview, as well as his mother. Both of them fully defend Rittenhouse's actions that night, with Rittenhouse telling the Post he doesn't regret having a gun as protests went on in Kenosha. "I feel I had to protect myself, I would've died that night if I didn't," Rittenhouse said. Rittenhouse's mother similarly said video shows the 17-year-old acted in "self defense."
Kariann Swart, the fiancée of Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men Rittenhouse allegedly killed, disagrees. "I don't think there's any sort of self-defense when there's an unarmed person in front of you, and you're holding an assault rifle two feet away," she told the Post. Still, Swart questions why Rosenbaum — who was just discharged from a psychiatric hospital — was "down there" at all.
Rittenhouse is also charged with killing Anthony Huber, and seriously injuring Gaige Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse's lawyers say he plans to plead not guilty to all charges. Watch the Post's whole investigation below. Kathryn Krawczyk