KENOSHA, Wis. – Kyle Rittenhouse cashed a coronavirus stimulus check to purchase the semi-automatic rife that authorities say he used to fatally shoot two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, he said.
According to a NBC News report, in a telephone interview with The Washington Post, posted Thursday, the jailed Rittenhouse said he acted in self-defense and has no regrets for arming himself that fateful August night as protesters marched in the wake of Jacob Blake’s shooting by police.
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Rittenhouse, 17, who had worked as a YMCA lifeguard, was arrested at his home in Antioch, Illinois, a day after the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, on Aug. 25.
“I got my $1,200 from the coronavirus Illinois unemployment because I was on furlough from YMCA, and I got my first unemployment check, so I was like, ‘Oh, I’ll use this to buy it,’” Rittenhouse said in his first jailhouse interview.
He wasn’t old enough to purchase the weapon himself. Authorities allege that he had a friend in Kenosha buy the AR-15 and hold it for him in Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse — who lived across the state line just 20 miles away — said he was out on the streets of Kenosha in southeast Wisconsin on Aug. 25 to protect local businesses and render medical aid during protests.
Pictures of Rittenhouse that night show him with his AR-15 slung over his shoulder and a medic’s bag on his hip.
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