Kenosha Shooter Backlash: “Christian” Group Raises $500k For Kyle Rittenhouse
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, crossed state lines and gunned down two people during a protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His family now has $500,000 thanks to fundraising by a so-called Christian group.
According to the New York Post, a group called “Friends of the Rittenhouse family” raised over $500,000 for the gunman. The New York Post claims their page read, “Now, Kyle is being unfairly charged with murder 1, by a DA who seems determined to capitalize on the political angle of the situation,. The situation was clearly self-defense, and Kyle and his family will undoubtedly need money to pay for the legal fees.”
The page also stated, “Let’s give back to someone who bravely tried to defend his community.” Rittenhouse was from Illonis, not Wisconsin.
A direct link to the “Friends of the Rittenhouse family” page could not be found but Snopes.com did confirm the story was accurate.
The support of the shooter and his family doesn’t stop with donations. Wendy Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old’s mother, reportedly received a standing ovation when she attended a Republican Women of Waukesha County event in Pewaukee, Wisconsin on Thursday (September 24).
People have alsoo been spotted wearing "Free Kyle"shirts at Trump rallies.
Rittenhouse was charged with first degree homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and a misdemeanor weapons use in the Aug. 25 shooting deaths of Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36. Another person, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, was also reportedly shot and wounded.
There are questions surrounding why Rittenhouse, who lived in Illinois, was even in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His lawyers claimed a business owner invited him to protect property but have not identified who made the request.
There were reports the owner was Anmol Khindri, who co-owns Car Source with his father. However, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Why would I? ... I’m already burned out. There was nothing left to protect.” According to Kenosha News, another person at CarSource said about Rittenhouse, “I don’t know that guy. He came out of nowhere.”
Rittenhouse lawyers are also claiming the weapon that was used to kill the two protesters did not cross state lines but was given to him by someone in Kenosha. The person who allegedly gave him the weapon has not been identified.
Rittenhouse is being held in a juvenile detention facility in Illinois, pending extradition to Wisconsin. However, he was also captured being violent to two women in early July.
According to the Racine Journal Times, Rittenhouse was spotted on the video in downtown Kenosha on July 1 inserting himself in an argument. When a third person, a young woman, gets into a scuffle with one of the other women, Rittenhouse begins to punch one of the women as the other man tries to hold him back.
Watch the incident below:
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