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Acquitted on all counts: Kyle Rittenhouse, here at his trial in early November
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Teenage boy Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, who shot and wounded two people with his semi-automatic rifle during anti-racism protests in the US city of Kenosha, has been acquitted on all counts.
Rittenhouse had been charged with murder, manslaughter, and attempted murder, among other charges.
A jury has now ruled that Rittenhouse is innocent.
They followed his argument that he had defended himself.
He had traveled heavily armed to protest
Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020, and joined armed men there who said they wanted to protect businesses from looting.
Protests against racism and police violence broke out in the city after a white police officer shot African American Jacob Blake several times in the back.
Blake survived seriously injured but has been paralyzed since the incident.
Just a few months earlier, the death of the African American George Floyd in Minneapolis had sparked national protests.
In an altercation during the protests, Rittenhouse shot dead two men and seriously injured a third.
There were several videos of the incident showing one of the men chasing Rittenhouse until he turned around and shot him four times.
Rittenhouse had said in court that he had acted in self-defense.
One of the men threatened to kill him and attacked him "from an ambush".
"I did what I had to do to stop the person who attacked me," Rittenhouse said in court with tears.
The prosecutors tried to portray Rittenhouse as a vigilante who had gone into an unpredictable scuffle heavily armed and intended to use the weapon.
But the jury did not follow this line of argument.
After the verdict was pronounced, Rittenhouse burst into tears.
Figurehead of the right camp
After his arrest, Rittenhouse had become a figurehead of the right-wing camp: the bail of two million dollars was quickly collected through donations, and his supporters included the actor and former child star Ricky Schroder ("The Little Lord").
The then President Donald Trump also stood behind Rittenhouse: He was "in great trouble" because demonstrators had "violently attacked" him, Trump said at the time.
"He would probably have been killed."
has / dpa / Reuters
