Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse says he used stimulus money to buy a rifle

(Image credit: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

published 19 November 2020

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."

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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