Rittenhouse - a former police cadet and a Trump supporter with a strong “Blues Lives Matter” social-media presence - told a right-wing media outlet that he was there doing his “job,” though he had taken it upon himself to help guard the car dealership. That week, Kenosha saw sustained protests after local police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back with his children watching. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, lived in Antioch, Illinois he crossed state lines, picked up an illegally obtained AR15 rifle from a friend’s stepfather, and embedded with a self-described militia purportedly protecting a local business from demonstrators out after curfew. After three and a half days of deliberation, a jury acquitted Rittenhouse of all felony counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. The judge also let Rittenhouse himself draw juror numbers from a raffle drum to set the final 12 who deliberated.On Friday, a jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of charges he faced for killing two people and shooting another with an AR15 rifle at Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on August 25, 2020. Schroeder’s handling of the trial drew attention at several points, including when he led applause for military veterans on Veterans Day just before a defense witness who had been in the Army was about to take the stand. But Judge Bruce Schroeder threw out that charge before jury deliberations after the defense argued that the Wisconsin law did not apply to the long-barreled rifle used by Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse had also been charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, a misdemeanor that had appeared likely to lead to a conviction. Then-President Donald Trump said it appeared Rittenhouse had been “very violently attacked.” Supporters donated more than $2 million toward his legal defense. While some Americans condemned Rittenhouse as a vigilante, some on the right hailed him as a hero who exercised his Second Amendment gun rights and tried to put a stop to lawlessness. by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other cases involving the police use of force against Black people. The bloodshed in Kenosha took place during a summer of sometimes-violent protests set off across the U.S. The exact racial makeup of the Rittenhouse jury wasn’t clear because jurors were not asked about their race in court. The case was part of an extraordinary confluence of trials that reflected the deep divide over race in the United States: In Georgia, three white men are on trial in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, while in Virginia, a trial is underway in a lawsuit over the deadly white-supremacist rally held in Charlottesville in 2017. Huber was then killed after hitting Rittenhouse in the head or neck with a skateboard, and Grosskreutz was shot after pointing a gun of his own at Rittenhouse. He said he was afraid his rifle was going to be wrested away and used to kill him. I defended myself.”īreaking into sobs at one point, he told the jury he opened fire after Rosenbaum chased him and made a grab for his gun. But Rittenhouse testified: “I didn’t do anything wrong.
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