A Jury Has Reached A Verdict In The Trial Of Kyle Rittenhouse

KENOSHA, WI — A jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of all charges Friday in the fatal shooting of two protesters on Aug. 25, 2020, during a chaotic night of protests in Kenosha, where cries for racial justice turned violent and a heavy police presence and armed civilians turned the streets into a militarized zone.

Rittenhouse was acquitted of first-degree reckless homicide first-degree recklessly endangering safety, two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, on the third night of protests sparked by the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer.

Rittenhouse was also acquitted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting that injured Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.

The jury did not consider a misdemeanor weapons charge, which was dismissed Monday.

Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder agreed to dismiss all charges against Rittenhouse with prejudice, granting a request from the defense attorneys.

“The jury ... has spoken,” Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said, conceding to the request.

In a statement released later Friday, Binger said that the prosecution was disappointed, but that the verdict must be respected.

“The jury, representing our community, has rendered its verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case. While we are disappointed with the verdict, it must be respected. We are grateful to the members of the jury for their diligent and thoughtful deliberations. The Kenosha community has endured much over the past 15 months, and yet we remain resilient and strong. We ask members of our community continue to express their opinions and feelings about this verdict in a civil and peaceful manner.”

See Also: Rittenhouse Acquitted: Reactions Pour In To Not Guilty Verdict

Defense attorney Mark Richards reiterated his trial arguments at a news conference and said Rittenhouse having a rifle was legal.

“There was so much fear and anger in Kenosha, and people did arm themselves,” he said. “We knew from the beginning that if you read the statute correctly, he was legal in having that firearm.”

Schroeder thanked the jury and assured them their concerns about safety would be addressed.

“At the beginning of the trial, there was some concern about your safety, and we will take every measure to make sure your concerns are addressed and respected,” he said.

The jury deliberated for just over three days before coming to a unanimous decision Friday that concluded the closely watched two-week trial that turned on whether Rittenhouse acted in self-defense or provoked violence at the racial justice protest in Kenosha.

Rittenhouse’s attorneys said their client shot the three men in self-defense during the confrontations that lasted just under two minutes.

Blake’s shooting was a flashpoint in a summer of unrest sweeping the United States after the Memorial Day 2020 killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died with the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, on his neck. Chauvin was convicted in Floyd’s death; in the shooting that left Blake partially paralyzed, police officer Rusten Sheskey was cleared of wrongdoing.

The anger and demands for justice took Kenosha by storm, with days of protests and nights of unrest. Residents of the city of about 100,000 awoke daily to fresh scenes of burned businesses, destroyed cars and smashed windows. The National Guard was called in to maintain order, and police used tear gas and rubber pellets to control the crowds.

Car windows were broken, and fires were set in a Car Source lot as the crowd recorded the scene.
During the trial, witness video showed Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse through the car lot before Rittenhouse turned and shot the man four times with an AR-15-style rifle. Richie McGinniss, a video producer at the Daily Caller who testified at the trial, said that Rosenbaum lunged for the gun.

“Are you certain he was reaching for the gun?” asked Richards, one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys. McGinniss said Rosenbaum was in a lowered position when he went for the weapon.

Witness video showed Rittenhouse, who prosecutors said was acting as an EMT, leaving Rosenbaum without offering aid and ran up Sheridan Road among members of a confused and angry crowd.

Two crowd members, including Huber, knocked Rittenhouse’s hat off and tried to hit him with a skateboard, a second video showed. Rittenhouse fell and pulled the trigger four more times — twice at an unidentified man who tried to kick him in the face and once more at Huber, who died after being struck in the chest, another video showed. The unidentified man apparently was not injured.

Grosskreutz, who was armed, said he thought Rittenhouse was an “active shooter” when he saw Huber get shot, and decided to close the distance between him and the shooter. He was shot in the arm and retreated, video showed.

Rittenhouse got up and walked to the line of armored police cars that rolled south on Sheridan Road in the final seconds of the video.

Rittenhouse Testified

In his opening statement, Richards showed jurors video of Rosenbaum at a gas station in Kenosha the night of the protest where he and others could be seen cursing and threatening armed civilians. Richards argued that Rittenhouse was aware Rosenbaum and the others were a threat.

Rittenhouse broke down in tears while testifying on his own behalf at the trial, describing how he was chased by Rosenbaum — who was unarmed — in the Car Source lot, saying that he shot the man in self-defense when Rosenbaum put his hand on Rittenhouse’s rifle.

Under cross-examination, Rittenhouse said he didn’t mean to kill anybody and that he brought the rifle to protect himself.

Richards said Rittenhouse’s actions were protected by Wisconsin self-defense laws, which say that one person can use force against another if he believes it will prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.

Rittenhouse testified that the man threatened him and said, “If I catch any of you f---ers alone, I’m going to f---ing kill you.”

Rittenhouse said he felt threatened by others in the crowd as he left the car lot after shooting Rosenbaum. But, he testified, he believed Rosenbaum “would have taken his gun and used it against him and killed others.”

Asked why he pointed his rifle at Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse told the prosecution he wanted him to stop chasing him.

Prosecution's Case

Prosecutors argued that Rittenhouse acted with disproportionate force toward Rosenbaum, Huber and Grosskreutz and that Rittenhouse provoked violence by pointing his rifle at people.

Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said Rittenhouse was the only person to shoot another person at the protest in Kenosha during a night of violence on which protesters set off fireworks, fired guns in the air and hurled bricks.

Rittenhouse aimed his rifle at Rosenbaum and at Grosskreutz before he fired it, the prosecutor said. “When you point the gun at someone else, it makes them feel they’re about to die,” Binger said.

Grosskreutz testified that Huber swung a skateboard at Rittenhouse’s head before Rittenhouse shot him in the chest. Grosskreutz added that he tried to close the distance between Rittenhouse and himself when he was shot in the arm. The bullet severed his bicep.

Binger also argued that Rittenhouse performed duties usually handled by police and fire personnel, such as offering medical aid and putting out fires. Rittenhouse said he knew there was a curfew in Kenosha that night but didn’t think the curfew was being enforced.

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