• The AR-15 rifle Kyle Rittenhouse used during the protest shooting was destroyed last month.
  • Video obtained by local news shows that the weapon was shredded at a Wisconsin crime lab.
  • Rittenhouse was acquitted last year for the killing of two people and injuring a third during a protest in 2020.

The assault-style rifle Kyle Rittenhouse used during the deadly shooting at a Kenosha, Wisconsin protest was destroyed in a state crime lab.

A video obtained by WTMJ-TV from city police shows the AR-15 being destroyed through a shredder on Feb. 25. In January, a judge agreed to have the rifle destroyed by the state, rather than return it to Rittenhouse. 

Prior to the judge's ruling, Rittenhouse asked for the weapon back so no one will "celebrate" the shooting where two people were killed and another was left injured amid a protest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020. 

 

"At the end of the day, two people did lose their lives, period,"  his spokesperson, David Hancock, said in January, according to the Associated Press. "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."

"There's plenty of people out there who would like to hold these items up, on both sides," Hancock added. "That's nothing Kyle's interested in."

Following the shooting in Kenosha, Rittenhouse was considered a hero for far-right conservatives. Last November, the teen was cleared of charges, arguing that he was acting in self-defense.

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