Jury finds Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges
⚠️ (Before the verdict, judge asked the audience to have zero reaction)
A jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who fatally shot two protesters in Kenosha, Wis., and wounded a third, of all charges on Friday, including intentional homicide.
The unanimous jury found Rittenhouse not guilty of all five counts that he had been facing, bringing an end to a controversial trial that has polarized the country.
Rittenhouse, then 17, shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded a third protester last year amid demonstrations against police brutality in Kenosha, where police had shot and paralyzed a Black man named Jacob Blake. Rittenhouse has maintained he shot the men in self defense.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) had activated about 500 National Guard members this week in preparation for the verdict.
The trial’s outcome is likely to further inflame national debates over civil rights. It comes less than a year after Kenosha County prosecutors chose not to charge the white police officer who shot Blake in August 2020.
Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-15 rifle illegally purchased for him by a friend, traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois during the unrest following Blake’s shooting. His lawyers told jurors that the teenager was there to protect small businesses from looting.
Videos played during the trial showed Rittenhouse shooting the men when confronted by the protesters.
Prosecutors had accused Rittenhouse of traveling to Kenosha to look for trouble and argued that the killings could not legally be considered self defense because he had provoked demonstrators into attacking him.
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Source: The Hill
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