FL Gun Shop Hires Kyle Rittenhouse 5 Years After Kenosha Shooting Acquittal

SARASOTA, FL — Five years after his acquittal in the fatal shooting of two protesters during 2020 civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, Kyle Rittenhouse now calls Sarasota home and works at a local gun shop.

Rittenhouse, now 23, was introduced as the newest employee of Shark Coast Tactical during an Aug. 25 episode of the Sarasota gun store's podcast.

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During the podcast, he said that he and his wife, Bella, moved to Sarasota from Fort Worth, Texas, several months ago. He'd been working at the shop for about a month when the episode was recorded.

Rittenhouse gained national attention in August 2020 after he shot three protesters in Kenosha — two of them fatally — during a period of civil unrest in the city. Protesters there took to the streets following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by white police officers.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, was arrested and faced multiple charges.

In November 2021, a Wisconsin jury found him not guilty of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, Patch previously reported.

He was also acquitted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting that injured a third protester, Gaige Grosskreutz. A misdemeanor weapons charge was dismissed by the jury.

Since his acquittal, Rittenhouse has become a prominent figure in conservative and gun-rights circles, including making public appearances and speaking at college events.

During the Aug. 25 podcast, he said he'd been visiting Florida since he was a child, with a number of friends in the area, and the first time he went to Sarasota he was 13 years old.

"I know Southwest Florida very well," he said.

He'd previously worked at gun shops in the Panhandle and Texas before taking the job at Shark Coast Tactical, but his notoriety from the Kenosha shootings has hindered his job search at times, he said.

Potential employers have seen his name on applications and didn't believe it was him, Rittenhouse told his new boss, Shark Coast owner Will Meade, during the podcast.

"Other places I have applied, they're like, 'Yeah, right. You're not Kyle Rittenhouse,'" he said. "But you gave me the time of day. You treated me like an actual employee."

Meade said during the podcast that Rittenhouse's notoriety wasn't the reason he offered him a job.

"We just really needed a salesperson because we were shorthanded," Meade said, adding, "It's a kid working in a gun shop, and you're just like anybody other."