#WAS KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOUND NOT GUILTY TRIAL#

In a later statement Biden appealed for calm and said he had spoken to local authorities in Wisconsin to offer any help needed to ensure public safety. Joe Biden said: “I stand by what the jury has concluded.” The US president told reporters: “The jury system works. Meanwhile, politicians and public figures shared their views on the verdict. Video circulating on social media showed large crowds peacefully gathered in Brooklyn and on the Manhattan Bridge to protest the acquittal. But hours after the jury came back, there were no signs of any major protests or unrest in Kenosha.ĭemonstrators were seen taking to the streets in New York. Racial justice advocates had said any verdict will not resolve long-simmering racial tensions in the city that boiled over last August, but that Kenosha needed to find a way forward.Īhead of the verdict, the state’s governor, Tony Evers, announced that 500 National Guard members stood ready in case of trouble. Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPAĪdelana Akindes, a 26-year-old activist who grew up in Kenosha and is suing the city over law enforcement’s treatment of her while she was protesting, has decried “ two sets of laws” in America – “one that applies to those who protest police brutality and racism, and another for those who support the police”. Justin Blake, Jacob Blake’s uncle, leaves the Kenosha county courthouse after the jury returned a not guilty verdict for Kyle Rittenhouse. His nephew was paralysed from the waist down when a white police officer, Rusten Sheskey, shot him in the back seven times as he attempted to apprehend him next to his car.

Justin Blake, Jacob Blake’s uncle, has said the past year has been “ a living hell” for his family. Outside the courthouse on Friday afternoon, supporters of Jacob Blake and Black Lives Matter faced off with supporters of Rittenhouse and angry words were exchanged after the 18-year-old was acquitted. He was also charged with the illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, but the judge dropped that count against him during the trial.

He was 17 when he came to Kenosha from his home in Illinois in August 2020, and began patrolling the streets, staying out after curfew, with the apparent approval of some of the police officers on duty at the time, who handed out water to the groups of armed civilian men milling about.Ĭlaiming self-defense, Rittenhouse had pleaded not guilty to the homicide and attempted homicide charges and also to two charges of recklessly endangering safety, for firing his weapon near others. Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, reacts with relief as her son is found not guilty on Friday.

Rittenhouse, now 18, shook as he waited for the verdicts to be read and, after he had been acquitted on all counts, he rushed from the room then later returned and was calmed and offered water by his lawyers as he sobbed and gulped for air. The verdicts of not guilty were read for each charge Rittenhouse faced, including for crimes normally classed as murder in most courts but in Wisconsin were charged as intentional homicide, reckless homicide and attempted intentional homicide. The jury in Kenosha returned to the courtroom early on Friday afternoon on the fourth day of its deliberations, after indicating that they had reached a unanimous verdict. A tale of two videos: Jacob Blake, Kyle Rittenhouse and two types of policing

#WAS KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOUND NOT GUILTY TRIAL#

The trial was seen as a test case for the US, as it appeared to illustrate contrasting attitudes of law enforcement when confronted with white men or teens who claimed to be acting as vigilante-style informal security personnel, armed with assault rifles, and Black members of the public or those protesting in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with an assault rifle as he roamed the streets of Kenosha with other armed men acting as a self-described militia during protests in August 2020, after a white police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, in the back. A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on charges related to his shooting dead two people at an anti-racism protest and injuring a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, after a tumultuous trial that gripped America.

Was kyle rittenhouse found not guilty