The family of Kenosha killer Kyle Rittenhouse claim he has abandoned them and left them facing eviction while he cashes in on his notoriety.
The 21-year-old shot to infamy in 2020 after gunning down three men with an AR-15 style rifle during unrest following a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Two of the men died but a jury cleared him of murder the following year after accepting that he acted in self-defense.
He has become an icon of the right-wing media circuit, appearing at conferences and meeting Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, but his sister Faith has launched a Gofundme appeal to save her and mom Wendy, 49, from homelessness citing her ‘brother’s unwillingness to provide or contribute to our family’.
‘Our family has been through unimaginable hardships, and now we find ourselves on the brink of losing everything,’ she wrote.
Rittenhouse is thought to have moved to a plush gated community in Houston after taking up a job as Outreach Director for Second Amendment lobby group Texas Gun Rights and launching his media career.
But he found himself driven off stage by Black Lives Matter protesters at the University of Memphis in March during a speech on his tour for conservative group Turning Point USA, focusing on the Second Amendment, and ‘the lies of Black Lives Matter’.
Some held signs picturing the faces of Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, the men he shot dead in 2020.
Rittenhouse and his gun group lobbied hard ahead of the Supreme Court’s ruling last week which struck down the Trump-era federal ban on bump stocks.
‘Time to go celebrate and buy a bump stock!’ he tweeted before adding: ‘Next step, Make America Full-Auto again!’
His mother and sister, who supported him throughout his murder trial, left their home in Antioch, Illinois, in its aftermath, moving to a small apartment in Kissimmee, Florida, where they claim they are now just days away from eviction.
‘Our lives were shattered when my brother was involved in a tragic shooting incident,’ Faith wrote. ‘The aftermath of this event uprooted our family’s stability and left us grappling with grief, trauma, and the harsh reality of starting over.
‘We’ve had difficulty obtaining and maintaining employment due to the fact many people still believe my mother drove Kyle or was somehow involved in his decision to go to Kenosha.
‘With my brother’s unwillingness to provide support or contribute to our family, we’ve been left to navigate this journey on our own.
‘To make matters worse, I lost my job due frequent hospitalizations due to medical issues. I have been unable to work over the last four months making it extremely difficult to provide.’
Faith, 23, accompanied her appeal with a photo of herself lying in a hospital bed attached to a blood monitor.
‘We’ve fallen behind on rent, and now we’re facing eviction with only eight days left in our apartment,’ she wrote.
‘The thought of losing our home, our sanctuary in the midst of chaos, is overwhelming and terrifying.’
The $3,000 target had been surpassed as of Friday evening, with $3,835 raised from 67 donations.