American teenager found not guilty of all charges after fatal shooting in Kenosha

A jury on Friday acquitted teenager Kyle Rittenhouse of the murder by the fatal shooting of two men during protests for racial justice in a decision that ignited a fierce debate over gun rights and the limits of self-defense in the United States.

The jury found Rittenhouse, 18, not guilty on all counts: two counts of manslaughter, one count of attempted murder for wounding a third man, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety in protests marred by arson. , riots and looting on August 25. 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse broke down in tears after the verdict and collapsed on the floor before being helped back to his chair.

Amid a heavy police presence, several dozen protesters lined the steps outside the courthouse after the verdict was read, some carrying signs in support of Rittenhouse and others expressing disappointment.

“We are all very happy that Kyle can live his life as a free and innocent man, but in this whole situation there are no winners, there are two people who lost their lives and that does not escape us at all”, David Hancock. a spokesman for the Rittenhouse family told Reuters.

Rittenhouse shot and killed 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum and 26-year-old Anthony Huber and fired a bullet that tore a chunk out of the arm of 28-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse claimed self-defense.

President Joe Biden, who tweeted a video during last year’s election campaign that appeared to link Rittenhouse to white supremacists, said on Friday he supported the jury’s decision.

But elsewhere the reaction showed deep partisan divisions. It was greeted with outrage by many members of the political left and celebrated by supporters of the right to arms.

“It is inconceivable that our justice system would allow an armed vigilante … to go free,” the Congressional Black Caucus said in a statement.

The thorny issue of race also loomed over the case, although Rittenhouse and the men he shot were all white. Some black activists said on Friday that the police and courts in the United States would have treated the teenager more harshly if he had been black.

But conservatives saw the verdict as a validation of the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gives Americans the right to bear arms.

US Congressman Madison Cawthorn, a Republican representative from North Carolina, said on Instagram: “My friends, Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty. You have the right to defend yourself. Be armed, dangerous and moral.”

Repeatedly attacked

Coming to their verdicts after more than three days of deliberation, the jury was faced with grieving narratives from the defense and the prosecution that offered very different descriptions of the teenager’s actions on the night of the shootings.

The defense argued that Rittenhouse had been repeatedly attacked and had shot the men for fear of losing his life. They said he was a civic-minded teenager who had been to Kenosha to protect private property after several nights of rioting in the city south of Milwaukee.

The riots followed police shooting at a black man named Jacob Blake, who was paralyzed from the waist down.

The prosecution portrayed Rittenhouse as a reckless vigilante who sparked the violent encounters and showed no remorse for the men he shot with his AR-15 style rifle.

Wisconsin criminal defense attorney Daniel Adams, who closely followed the trial, called the verdict “very dramatic but not entirely surprising.”

Most of the attorneys “who looked at the evidence had the feeling that the state could not clear the threshold of rebutting self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. Broadcast live and analyzed by cable television experts on a daily basis, the trial took place during a time of social and political polarization in the United States Gun rights are cherished by many Americans and enshrined in the United States Constitution. even as the nation experiences a high rate of gun violence and the easy availability of firearms.

Rittenhouse, who testified that he had no choice but to open fire to protect himself, is viewed as heroic by some conservatives who favor expansive gun rights and see the shooting as justified. Many on the left view Rittenhouse as a vigilante and an embodiment of a runaway American gun culture.

Protests against racism and police brutality turned violent in many American cities after the police murder of black George Floyd in Minneapolis, three months before the Kenosha shooting.

Rittenhouse’s verdict ended the highest-profile American civilian self-defense case since a man named George Zimmerman was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, in Florida in 2013.

With so much of that night in Kenosha captured on cell phone and surveillance video, few basic facts were in dispute. Instead, the trial focused on whether Rittenhouse acted reasonably to prevent “imminent death or great bodily harm,” the requirement for the use of deadly force under Wisconsin law.

The prosecution, led by Kenosha County Deputy District Attorney Thomas Binger, tried to paint Rittenhouse as the assailant and noted that he was the only one who killed someone that night.

The metal jacket

Rittenhouse’s gun was loaded with 30 rounds of metal jacket bullets, which are designed to penetrate its target. The jury watched a series of graphic videos, including the moments after Rittenhouse fired four rounds at Rosenbaum, who was lying motionless, bleeding and groaning. Another video showed Grosskreutz screaming, blood gushing from his arm.

Rittenhouse testified in his own defense last Wednesday at the most dramatic moment of the trial: a risky decision by his lawyers given his youth and the prospect of harsh questioning by the prosecution. Rittenhouse broke down sobbing at one point, but emphasized that he fired at the men only after being attacked.

“I did what I had to do to stop the person who was attacking me,” he said.

His defense attorney, Mark Richards, said Friday that the defense team decided that he testify after testing two versions of his case before mock juries, one with him testifying and one without him.

“It was substantially better when we put it in,” Richards told reporters after the verdict. “In Wisconsin, if you don’t put a customer on the stand, you’ll lose. Period.”

Rittenhouse testified that he shot Huber after he hit him with a skateboard and pulled his gun. He said he shot Grosskreutz after the man pointed the gun he was carrying at the teenager, a claim Grosskreutz acknowledged during questioning by the defense. Rittenhouse testified that he shot Rosenbaum after the man chased after him and grabbed his gun.

(REUTERS)