US teen Kyle Rittenhouse cleared over protester deaths
Kyle Rittenhouse broke down as a jury acquitted him on all charges over the shooting deaths of two men during protests in Wisconsin.
After three and a half days of deliberations, a jury here acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with killing two people during unrest last year, ending a highly watched case that turned on whether the teen had acted in self-defense.
Mr. Rittenhouse, now 18 years old, faced charges of intentional, reckless and attempted homicide, and reckless endangerment. The case revolved around his actions the night of Aug. 25, 2020, as he patrolled the city with an AR-15-style rifle and a small medical kit amid unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake. His attorneys argued he acted in self-defense and entered a not guilty plea. He has been free on $2 million in bail, mostly raised by supporters online.
The trial took a little over two weeks. The prosecution called Mr. Rittenhouse a “wannabe soldier,” who provoked his confrontation with the first person he shot by pointing his rifle at two people at the scene of a fire. The Kenosha unrest, in a summer of protests across the U.S. sparked by the killing of George Floyd, followed the shooting of Mr. Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.
Mr. Rittenhouse cried, breathing quickly and shaking while he clutched at his chest as the last counts of the verdict were read. The judge thanked the jury and said they had been wonderful to work with. The judge said the charges were dismissed with prejudice and that he had been released from his bond.
“The story that came out from the beginning was not the true story and that was something we had to work on overcoming in court and we think we did that,” said Mark Richards, Mr. Rittenhouse’s lead defense attorney. He said it wasn’t a close call whether to put Mr. Rittenhouse on the stand, saying that they did two mock juries and the case went substantially better when Mr. Rittenhouse testified.
Following the verdict, about a dozen protesters gathered in front of the Kenosha courthouse, as law enforcement from the sheriff’s department stood watch at the corners of the block.
At one point four different helicopters hovered in the sky.
Some protesters walked down the sidewalk with signs that said “this trial is a farce.”
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said: “We respect the jury verdict based on three and a half days of careful deliberations. Certainly, issues regarding the privilege of self-defense remain highly contentious in our current times. We ask that all members of the public accept the verdicts peacefully and not resort to violence.”
Karen Bloom and John Huber, the parents of Anthony Huber, one of the men killed by Mr. Rittenhouse, said: “Today’s verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son. It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.”
Mr. Huber’s family said they filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit against the City of Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s department.
“While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken,” President Biden said. “I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law.”
Michael Cicchini, a defense attorney in Kenosha who wasn’t involved with the case, said he had expected either an acquittal or a hung jury. He said the prosecution had been aggressive in presenting its case, but ultimately it was the facts that had undermined their stance.
“You can only do so much with what you have,” he said. “I mean, a man had threatened to kill him and chased him, another pointed a gun at him and another struck him with a skateboard.”
The most dramatic moments of the trial came as Mr. Rittenhouse testified in his own defense, at one point breaking down on the stand. He later said that he feared for his life as Joseph Rosenbaum, the first person he shot and killed, ran toward him and had his hand on the barrel of Mr. Rittenhouse’s rifle as Mr. Rittenhouse began firing.
“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,” Mr. Rittenhouse testified during cross examination by prosecutors.
Lawyers who weren’t involved in the case said the testimony probably helped his case.
The prosecution portrayed Mr. Rittenhouse as an outsider who lied about his status as an EMT and was ill-prepared to render aid or handle a firearm in the chaotic situation. But even some of its own witnesses bolstered defense arguments that he acted in self-defense when he shot and killed Mr. Rosenbaum, 36, and Mr. Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27.
Richie McGinniss, a videographer for the online publication the Daily Caller who was called by the prosecution, testified that Mr. Rosenbaum was chasing Mr. Rittenhouse through a parking lot and appeared to lunge for Mr. Rittenhouse’s gun in the moments leading up to the shooting.
Mr. Grosskreutz said in his testimony that he was pointing a handgun toward Mr. Rittenhouse when the then-17-year-old fired at him, causing severe damage to Mr. Grosskreutz’s arm.
The prosecution has always faced an uphill battle in the case. Under Wisconsin law, the defense must only cite some evidence for self-defense, putting the burden of proof on prosecutors to negate that claim beyond a reasonable doubt.
Prosecutors received rebukes from the judge and a motion for mistrial by the defense when they tried to introduce a video of Mr. Rittenhouse saying a few weeks before the riots in Kenosha that he wished he had his gun to shoot some people he thought were shoplifting. The judge had ruled that video wasn’t relevant to the specific circumstances of the case and had barred its use. The defense and judge also criticized a line of questioning by the prosecution that appeared to impugn Mr. Rittenhouse’s right not to testify.
The judge said he would consider the motion, and the trial continued.
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