A Trial Of Teenager That Polarised the United State; Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted Of All Charges In Kenosha Shooting Case

A 12-person U.S jury on Friday (Nov 19) acquitted teenager Kyle Rittenhouse who killed two people and wounded another with a semi-automatic rifle during violent Black Lives Matter protests in Wisconsin in Aug 2020.

Rittenhouse, who faced charges of first-degree intentional homicide, failure to comply with an emergency order from a local authorities, and possession of a dangerous weapon, was acquitted on all counts and found 'not guilty'.

Judge Bruce Schroeder, who presided over the trial, had earlier this week dismissed weapon charge, which held that Rittenhouse was too young to be carrying an AR-15.

Rittenhouse who was 17 at the time of the shooting, and his attorney argued that he was acting all along in self-defence.

In Aug last year, riots broke out in Kenosha after police shot and paralysed Jacob Blake, a black man, who was brandishing a knife. The officer who shot Blake was not charged with a crime.

Rittenhouse, a resident of a small nearby town called Antioch, claims that he reached Kenosa with a group of friends to offer resistance to rioters. He maintained during the trial that he and his friends volunteered to help defend a local car dealership from violent protestors who were looting and burning multiple businesses to the ground in Kenosha.

During the night of rioting, Rittenhouse was separated from his group and ended up shooting and killing two men - Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber. Another person, Gaige Grosskreutz, was shot in the arm by Rittenhouse but survived.

Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum, the first man he shot and killed, chased him while a bystander shouted “get him and kill him.” According to Rittenhouse, Rosenbaum grabbed the barrel of his gun, at which point Rittenhouse shot him four times.

“If I would have let Mr Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it and probably killed more people,” Rittenhouse argued during the trial.

Videos of Huber hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard also emerged.

While prosecution in his trial sought to cast Rittenhouse as an “wannabe soldier” and armed "Chaos Tourist" who went to Kenosha looking for an opportunity to use violence, the defense argued that he was civic-minded youth came to Kenosha to protect property and acted in self-defense after being attacked by the three men he ultimately shot.

Rittenhouse trial has polarised the public opinion in U.S mostly on political and to some extent on racial lines. Many Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits have expressed solidarity with Rittenhouse and defended his right to use arms. to protect himself. Democrats and progressives have claimed that his acquittal is another evidence of justice system is biased to white America.

Ayanna Pressley, a Congresswoman from Democratic party, even called Rittenhouse a “domestic terrorist”. Even Joe Biden, insinuated that he was a “white supremacist”

'President Biden don't know my son whatsoever. He's not a white supremacist,' Rittenhouse's mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, told Sean Hannity's Fox News show earlier this month.