Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges on Friday, after his trial for shooting three people, killing two of them in Kenosha last year. Rittenhouse broke down in tears, nearly collapsing as a court clerk announced the jury had found him not guilty of all charges.
He had faced five counts, including charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree intentional homicide, and attempted first-degree attempted homicide. He faced up to life in prison had he been convicted.
There was no question Rittenhouse shot anyone, and the trial boiled down to whether he was legitimately acting in self-defense. He had been charged in connection with the shootings of three people in August 2020 during protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz during the widespread civil unrest in Kenosha after Blake was shot by police.
Huber’s fiancée stood praying in the doorway of the courtroom as she and other relatives of the men Rittenhouse shot waited to hear the verdict. Rittenhouse immediately began crying after the full verdict was announced, falling forward and laying his head briefly on the defense table, and slipping partly off his chair, his legs shaking as he sobbed. His lawyer rubbed Rittenhouse’s shoulders and told him to breathe as his family also cried. READ MORE
