Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two people during summer riots in Wisconsin following the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake, says he purchased the AR-15 he used in the shooting with his COVID-19 stimulus check.
"I got my twelve hundred dollars from the coronavirus Illinois unemployment 'cause 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,'" Kyle Rittenhouse told The Washington Post in a jailhouse interview.
“I feel I had to protect myself,” he told the news outlet. “I would have died that night if I didn’t.”
Rittenhouse, who was too young to buy a rifle, told the Post that Dominick Black purchased the weapon for him. Black has been charged with two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a person under the age of 18.
The Post was granted the interview on the condition Rittenhouse not be asked about the shooting or the events afterward. His attorneys have maintained he was acting in self-defense when he opened fire.
Rittenhouse, 17, who faces charges he allegedly killed Anthony M. Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, on Friday posted a $2 million bail.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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