Last week, the family of accused shooter Kyle Rittenhouse began selling branded merchandise in an online store. As of Wednesday (December 23), the store was offline, dropped by the company, Printify who was operating the store.
The 17-year-old was arrested for shooting three people back in August during protests in response to Wisconsin police shooting Jacob Blake. Two of them died, one was injured.
Rittenhouse’s family said they were selling items with the phrase “Free Kyle” on them to raise funds for his legal fees. A separate fundraiser generated $2 million, which allowed Rittenhouse to be released on bail in late November.
According to a statement posted on Twitter, the family said Printify ended the FreeKyleUSA account because it was in violation of the company policy that prohibits content that promotes or condones violence.
“Our printing platform, Printify, has placed all unfulfilled orders on hold and denied any additional orders. They say it is because our merchandise violates their ‘Acceptable Use’ policy,” the tweet from the @FreeKyleUSA account, reportedly run by his family said.
In another Twitter post, the family announced the company dropped the merchandise altogether.
According to a report by Kenosha News, Prinitify made a statement online indicating they dropped the merchandise because it didn’t want to be associated with the ongoing trial.
“We have chosen to discontinue our business relationship with this store in order to mitigate business risk,” the statement reads. “Ultimately, we don’t want to be affiliated with a story that’s involved in such a complex, controversial and ongoing case,” the company continued before adding, “We’re following the example of other businesses and platforms taking a similar approach, like GoFundMe, Etsy, Facebook, and YouTube.”
The Rittenhouse family took to social media to say they’re looking for other ways to get the merchandise out to people.
Kimberly Motley, an attorney for Gaige Grosskreutz, the third man severely injured by Rittenhouse, told ABC News, “[The families of the two protesters shot by Rittenhouse] are going to be celebrating Christmas without their loved ones. Meanwhile, you know, Kyle Rittenhouse’s mom is trying to profit off of these tragedies. And I think it’s frankly vile and disgusting and in extreme poor taste.”
Rittenhouse’s family and supporters maintain that he was defending himself and that Prinitfy dropping the merchandise represents “a powerful, concerted effort solely focused on preventing the truth from getting out.”
Photo: Kenosha County Sheriff's Department