A Wisconsin judge has approved an agreement by lawyers to destroy the assault-style rifle used by Kyle Rittenhouse to shoot three people during a 2020 street protest.
Assistant district attorney Thomas Binger said the state crime lab would destroy the gun, probably in April.
Judge Bruce Schroeder, the Kenosha County judge who presided over Rittenhouse’s trial, approved the agreement.
Rittenhouse’s lawyer had filed a motion asking prosecutors to return Rittenhouse’s rifle, ammunition, face mask and other clothing he was wearing on the night of the shooting.
A spokesman for Rittenhouse said last week that the 19-year-old wanted to destroy the rifle so nothing could be used as a political symbol or trophy celebrating the shootings.
The rest of Rittenhouse’s property has been returned to him, Binger told the judge.
Rittenhouse shot the men during the protest in Kenosha in 2020. He killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm.
Rittenhouse argued he fired in self-defence after each of the men attacked him. A jury last year acquitted him of multiple charges, including homicide.
Conservatives across the nation have praised Rittenhouse, saying he was defending Kenosha from far-left militants. Liberals have painted him as a trigger-happy vigilante.
Meanwhile, another legal fight is brewing over the fate of the two million dollars conservatives raised to cover Rittenhouse’s bail.
Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, filed a motion on Thursday seeking the money, with plans to divide it between his law firm and the #FightBack Foundation.
Attorneys Lin Wood and John Pierce, who were representing Rittenhouse in the early days of case, formed the foundation to raise money for him.
Mr Richards also wants to give 150,000 dollars back to actor Ricky Schroder, who donated to Rittenhouse’s defence.
Demonstrators took to the streets for a number of nights in Kenosha in August 2020 after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a black man, in the back as Mr Blake was resisting arrest during a domestic disturbance. The shooting left Mr Blake paralysed from the waist down.
The protests turned chaotic at times, with people burning buildings. Rittenhouse and his friend, Dominick Black, joined a group of militia members to protect a used car lot on the night of August 25, 2020.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at time and living in Antioch, Illinois, was armed with an AR-15-style rifle that Black had purchased for him earlier that year because he was too young to buy a firearm under Wisconsin law.
