The families of the two men who died expressed disappointment. His attorney Mark Richards said at a news conference after the verdicts that Rittenhouse “wishes none of this happened.” “I didn’t do anything wrong,” Rittenhouse said. He testified that he showed up to protect property and offer medical aid to anybody who needed it. In a high-stakes move by the defense, Rittenhouse took the stand to tell his side of what happened on the streets the day of the killings. Many small businesses were destroyed or damaged in the unrest. Sheskey was cleared in an investigation and remains in the department.įederal law enforcement and National Guard troops were dispatched across the city for several weeks to deter protesters and protect property. The demonstrations last year in Kenosha, a city of 100,000 people on the shore of Lake Michigan, came after Rusten Sheskey, a white Kenosha police officer, shot and paralyzed a Black man, Jacob Blake, after being called to an apartment complex for a domestic violence dispute.īlake, who was holding a knife when he was struck by several bullets, later pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct. “From just a legal standard, it was a straightforward self-defense case,” said Julius Kim, a criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor in Wisconsin. Legal experts said they were not surprised by the verdict.
#Rittenhouse not guilty trial#
Moments later, Rittenhouse fired a single shot that hit Gaige Grosskreutz, then 26, in the arm.Ī key moment in the trial came when Grosskreutz testified that he pointed a handgun at Rittenhouse and only then did Rittenhouse shoot him. The second man Rittenhouse killed, 26-year-old Anthony Huber, could be seen swinging a skateboard at Rittenhouse’s head before attempting to grab his rifle in the middle of a street where hundreds of protesters gathered. Video presented during the trial showed 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse through a parking lot before Rittenhouse shot him. Thomas Binger told jurors.īut as the trial wore on, many legal experts came to believe that the prosecution would have trouble proving that Rittenhouse did not act in self-defense. “You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one who brought the gun, when you are the one creating the danger, when you’re the one provoking other people,” Deputy Dist.
#Rittenhouse not guilty full#
The only person who appears allowed to go on and live a full life is Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who killed two people. Opinion Granderson: A week of chasing justice in two Americas Prosecutors portrayed Rittenhouse as a calculating gunman - at times describing him as an “active shooter” - who roamed the streets of Kenosha looking to spark violence. Instead, it had to decide the much narrower question of whether he was acting in self-defense each time he pulled the trigger.
The jury was not considering whether Rittenhouse should have been on the streets of Kenosha with a rifle. “It now gives people the sense they can run around with rifles and shoot people in chaotic situations,” he said. Phil Haney, a 78-year-old Kenosha resident, one of several dozen people who gathered outside the courthouse for the verdicts, said he was left “speechless.”
“A 17-year-old taking an AR-15 into a tense situation is a recipe for trouble,” he said. I wish everyone would condemn what Rittenhouse did even though he was acquitted of a crime. “We are at such a tense time in our society. “I worry that some will portray Rittenhouse as a hero and that it will encourage vigilantism,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law. The acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts sends a chilling message about the acceptability of vigilantism. Opinion Op-Ed: The verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial sends a chilling message Though President Biden and other politicians said that the jury’s decision must be respected, some expressed concern that the verdict could send a dangerous message. Many others had argued that Rittenhouse had courted violence by bringing an AR-style semiautomatic rifle to the Kenosha protests. It’s called being found NOT GUILTY - And by the way, if that’s not self-defense, nothing is!” Trump also released a statement: “Congratulations to Kyle Rittenhouse for being found INNOCENT of all charges.
#Rittenhouse not guilty free#
“We hope that Kyle will now be allowed to live a free and prosperous life, and that all Americans will understand that the 2nd Amendment isn’t about hunting - it’s about the right to defend oneself from tyranny and lawless criminal actors.” “Self-defense is a God-given right, and Kyle defended himself,” said a statement by Dudley Brown, executive director of the National Foundation for Gun Rights in Loveland, Colo. Backers of Rittenhouse celebrated the verdict as a victory for the right of Americans to use firearms to protect themselves and their property.
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