{"id":2627,"date":"2021-11-21T12:38:40","date_gmt":"2021-11-21T17:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tfgrs\/2021\/11\/21\/jury-finds-rittenhouse-not-guilty-in-kenosha-shootings\/"},"modified":"2021-11-21T12:38:40","modified_gmt":"2021-11-21T17:38:40","slug":"jury-finds-rittenhouse-not-guilty-in-kenosha-shootings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gynesisradio.com\/tfgrs\/2021\/11\/21\/jury-finds-rittenhouse-not-guilty-in-kenosha-shootings\/","title":{"rendered":"Jury finds Rittenhouse not guilty in Kenosha shootings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Kyle<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1 of 17Kyle Rittenhouse closes his eyes and cries as he is found not guilty on all counts at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. The jury came back with its verdict after close to 3 1\/2 days of deliberation. (Sean Krajacic\/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges<\/a> Friday after testifying he acted in self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice<\/a> in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse, 18, began to choke up, fell forward toward the defense table and then hugged one of his attorneys as he heard a court clerk recite \u201cnot guilty\u201d five times. A sheriff\u2019s deputy whisked him out a back door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe wants to get on with his life,\u201d defense attorney Mark Richards said. \u201cHe has a huge sense of relief for what the jury did to him today. He wishes none of this ever happened. But as he said when he testified, he did not start this.\u201dADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The verdict in the politically combustible case was met with anger and disappointment from those who saw Rittenhouse as a vigilante and a wannabe cop, and relief and a sense of vindication from those who regarded him as a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness and exercised his Second Amendment right to carry a gun <\/a>and to defend himself. Supporters donated more than $2 million toward his legal defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the longtime civil rights leader, said the verdict throws into doubt the safety of people who protest in support of Black Americans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems to me that it\u2019s open season on human rights demonstrators,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse was charged with homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangering for killing two men and wounding a third with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle in the summer of 2020 during a tumultuous night of protests over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse, a then-17-year-old former police youth cadet, said that he went to Kenosha to protect property from rioters but that he came under attack and feared for his life. He is white, as were those he shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anonymous jury, whose racial makeup was not disclosed by the court but appeared to be overwhelmingly white, deliberated for close to 3 1\/2 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

President Joe Biden called for calm, saying that while the outcome of the case \u201cwill leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former President Donald Trump, who at the time of the shootings said it appeared Rittenhouse had been \u201cvery violently attacked, \u201d issued a statement Friday congratulating Rittenhouse on the verdict, adding \u201cif that\u2019s not self defense, nothing is!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse could have gotten life in prison if found guilty on the most serious charge, first-degree intentional homicide, or what some other states call first-degree murder. Two other charges each carried over 60 years behind bars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said his office respects the jury\u2019s decision, and he asked the public to \u201caccept the verdicts peacefully and not resort to violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of the verdict, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers announced that 500 National Guard members stood ready in case of trouble. But hours after the jury came back, there were no signs of any major protests or unrest in Kenosha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As he released the jurors, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder<\/a> assured them the court would take \u201cevery measure\u201d to keep them safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is Black and a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, denounced the outcome. He, like many civil rights activists, saw a racial double standard at work in the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the last few weeks, many dreaded the outcome we just witnessed,\u201d Barnes said. \u201cThe presumption of innocence until proven guilty is what we should expect from our judicial system, but that standard is not always applied equally. We have seen so many black and brown youth killed, only to be put on trial posthumously, while the innocence of Kyle Rittenhouse was virtually demanded by the judge.\u201dADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other political figures on the right welcomed the verdict and condemned the case brought against Rittenhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark McCloskey,<\/a> who got in trouble with the law when he and his wife waved a rifle and a handgun at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past his St. Louis home in 2020, said the verdict shows that people have a right to defend themselves from a \u201cmob.\u201d He is now a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Missouri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fifteen minutes after the verdicts, the National Rifle Association tweeted the text of the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kenosha case was part of an extraordinary confluence of trials that reflected the deep divide over race <\/a>in the United States: In Georgia, three white men are on trial in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery<\/a>, while in Virginia, a trial is underway in a lawsuit over the deadly white-supremacist rally held in Charlottesville in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bloodshed in Kenosha took place during a summer of sometimes-violent protests set off across the U.S. by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other cases involving the police use of force against Black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse went to Kenosha from his home in nearby Antioch, Illinois, <\/a>after businesses were ransacked and burned in the nights that followed Blake\u2019s shooting. He joined other armed civilians on the streets, carrying a weapon authorities said was illegally purchased for him because he was underage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bystander and drone video captured most of the frenzied chain of events that followed: Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, then shot to death protester Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded demonstrator Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors portrayed Rittenhouse as a \u201cwannabe soldier\u201d who had gone looking for trouble that night and was responsible for creating a dangerous situation in the first place by pointing his rifle at demonstrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Rittenhouse testified: \u201cI didn\u2019t do anything wrong. I defended myself.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking into sobs at one point, he told the jury he opened fire after Rosenbaum chased him and made a grab for his gun. He said he was afraid his rifle was going to be wrested away and used to kill him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Huber was then killed after hitting Rittenhouse in the head or neck with a skateboard, and Grosskreutz was shot after approaching with his own pistol in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under questioning from the prosecution, Grosskreutz said he had his hands raised as he closed in on Rittenhouse and didn\u2019t intend to shoot the young man. Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked Grosskreutz why he didn\u2019t shoot first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not the kind of person that I am. That\u2019s not why I was out there,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not who I am. And definitely not somebody I would want to become.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But during cross-examination, Rittenhouse defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him \u2026 that he fired, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCorrect,\u201d Grosskreutz replied. The defense also presented a photo showing Grosskreutz pointing the gun at Rittenhouse<\/a>, who was on the ground with his rifle pointed up at Grosskreutz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grosskreutz, under follow-up questioning from the prosecutor, said he did not intend to point his weapon at Rittenhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the verdict, Huber\u2019s parents, Karen Bloom and John Huber, said the outcome \u201csends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse\u2019s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, seated near her son on a courtroom bench, gasped in delight, cried and hugged others around her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Richards, the defense attorney, said that Rittenhouse wants to be a nurse and that he is in counseling for post traumatic stress disorder and will probably move away because \u201cit\u2019s too dangerous\u201d for him to continue to live in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going in, many legal experts said they believed the defense had the advantage because of provisions favorable to Rittenhouse in Wisconsin self-defense law and video showing him being chased at key moments. Testimony from some of the prosecution\u2019s own witnesses also seemed to buttress his claim of self-defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some witnesses described Rosenbaum as \u201chyperaggressive\u201d and said that he dared others to shoot him and threatened to kill Rittenhouse earlier that night; others said he acted \u201cbelligerently\u201d but did not appear to pose a serious threat. A videographer testified Rosenbaum lunged for the rifle just before he was shot, and a pathologist said his injuries appeared to indicate his hand was over the barrel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Rosenbaum\u2019s fiancee disclosed that he was on medication for bipolar disorder and depression. Rittenhouse\u2019s lawyers branded Rosenbaum a \u201ccrazy person.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rittenhouse had also been charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, a misdemeanor that carries nine months behind bars and appeared likely to lead to a conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the judge threw out that charge before deliberations <\/a>after the defense argued that the Wisconsin law did not apply to the long-barreled rifle used by Rittenhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The verdicts end the criminal case against Rittenhouse. He does not face any federal charges and he is unlikely to because federal law only applies in very limited cases for homicides. No civil lawsuits have been brought against Rittenhouse yet, either, but there are lawsuits targeting others. Huber\u2019s father is suing police and government officials <\/a>in Kenosha alleging that they allowed for a dangerous situation that resulted in his son\u2019s death, and Grosskreutz has a similar lawsuit<\/a>. A group of protesters has sued the city and county of Kenosha alleging that curfew laws were enforced against them but not against armed people like Rittenhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

___<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Associated Press writer Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan; Aaron Morrison from New York. Bauer reported from Madison, Wis., and Forliti from Minneapolis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

___<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Find AP\u2019s full coverage of the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/kyle-rittenhouse<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 of 17Kyle Rittenhouse closes his eyes and cries as he is found not guilty on all counts at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. The jury came back with its verdict after close to 3 1\/2 days of deliberation. (Sean Krajacic\/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool) KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) \u2014 Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges Friday after testifying he acted in self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2628,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t