![]() The incident seemed to validate the popular right-wing narrative, promoted by Trump, that state and local Democratic officials around the country were allowing leftist rioters and looters to destroy their cities. The teenager’s social media presence revealed him to be an aspiring police officer who, months before taking up arms at the protest in Kenosha, had been spotted in the front row of a Donald Trump rally. ![]() Jeff Jared, of Seattle, reacts to the verdict outside the Kenosha County Courthouse on Friday. “KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOR CONGRESS,” tweeted Republican Florida state Rep. ![]() On the right, Rittenhouse was immediately hailed as a hero who simply exercised his Second Amendment right to protect himself against violent rioters. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts called Rittenhouse a “white supremacist domestic terrorist” and criticized news outlets for not describing him as such.Įven though all three of the men shot by Rittenhouse were white, his actions - including his presence at the protest alongside other armed vigilantes - were seen as racially charged. On Twitter the day after the shootings, Democratic Rep. After the shootings, he became an instant political lightning rod, with figures on both the right and left rushing to hold up the teenager as a symbol of their divergent worldviews. The first two nights of protests in Kenosha had devolved into looting and property damage, drawing national media attention to the small Wisconsin city on Lake Michigan well before Rittenhouse showed up with his AR-15. The police shooting of Blake and the unrest that followed took place at the tail end of a tumultuous summer filled with nationwide protests against racial injustice and, in particular, police killings of unarmed Black people, which had been sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. 25, 2020, as he walks along Sheridan Road in Kenosha, Wis., during a night of unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. I defended myself," he said during his own lengthy and, at times, emotional testimony last week. Rittenhouse, now 18, pleaded not guilty to all the charges, arguing that he acted in self-defense by opening fire on demonstrators who, he claimed, were trying to attack him. He was also charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, but Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder agreed to drop the weapons charge when defense attorneys argued that the teenager could be cleared under a hunting exemption to Wisconsin law, which does not permit the sale of a firearm to anyone under the age of 18.Īmong the witnesses called by prosecutors was Rittenhouse’s friend Dominick Black, who said he purchased the gun used in the shootings. He was charged with five felony counts stemming from the shootings, including first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Rittenhouse was 17 when he carried an AR-style semiautomatic rifle on the streets of Kenosha during a turbulent protest in the summer of 2020 and opened fire on demonstrators, killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and seriously wounding Gaige Grosskreutz. Kyle Rittenhouse is comforted by his lawyer as he was acquitted of all charges at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Friday. ![]()
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