Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people during demonstrations last year in Kenosha, Wis., was found not guilty on all charges Friday.
Rittenhouse had originally faced six charges, but on Nov. 15, the day before deliberations began, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a gun possession charge against Rittenhouse, the least serious charge he faced, after Rittenhouse’s defense team argued that the law banning minors from possessing weapons only applied to short-barreled guns, not to the rifle Rittenhouse used. Rittenhouse, now 18, was 17 at the time of the shootings.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated more than three full days but ultimately agreed with the defense that Rittenhouse was acting in self-defense. Rittenhouse broke down in tears of relief as the verdict was read.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]
On Aug. 25, 2020, Rittenhouse traveled across state lines from his home in Illinois to Kenosha amid unrest in the city over the shooting two days earlier of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot and paralyzed after an altercation with police officers. No charges were filed against the officers involved in Blake’s shooting.
Read more: In the Kyle Rittenhouse Trial, Self-Defense Takes Center Stage
Rittenhouse’s intention, according to his defense team, was to protect the city from rioting and to provide medical assistance to demonstrators. Rittenhouse had received some first aid and CPR training as part of a lifeguard job he held; however, the owner of a car dealership that Rittenhouse was allegedly trying to protect that night testified during the trial that he had not asked for help.
Video footage and photographs from the night of the shootings showed Rittenhouse walking the streets with a military-style semiautomatic rifle, and prosecutors argued that Rittenhouse’s actions amounted to provocation and led to the violence that resulted in the fatal shootings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and to the wounding of Gaige…
Source : time
