A young American tried for the death of two people on the sidelines of anti-racist demonstrations, in 2020 in Kenosha, burst into tears on Wednesday in front of the jurors, while assuring that he had nothing “done wrong”.
“I just defended myself,” Kyle Rittenhouse assured on the eighth day of his trial in this city in the northern United States. “I didn’t mean to kill, I just wanted to stop the people attacking me. “
In August 2020, when the United States was crossed by a huge anti-racist mobilization, Kenosha had flared up because white police had seriously injured a young black man, Jacob Blake, during an arrest attempt.
On the third night of riots, Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, had taken to the streets of the city equipped with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. Under confused circumstances, he opened fire, killing two and injuring one.
“The plan was to provide first aid,” he testified. “I was not in any camp”.
“But what did you need a gun for?” », Asked the prosecutor Thomas Binger during the hearings. “I needed a weapon to be able to protect myself in case I was attacked,” he retorted without disassembling.
Dressed in a blue suit and tie, the young man with the chubby face strove to appear as a calm and responsible citizen, pushed to shoot by violent rioters who were chasing him.
The prosecutor for his part pointed out his deviations from the law: Kyle Rittenhouse was driving without a license, had asked a friend to buy him his rifle because he was too young to do so and, on the night of the tragedy, had violated the cover -fire in effect in Kenosha.
Thomas Binger half-heartedly accused him of looking for trouble. “Why did you go to a crowd you knew were hostile?” He asked him in particular, without getting an answer.
Indicted for murder, Kyle Rittenhouse pleads not guilty. He appears free, supporters having paid his deposit of two million dollars.
The young man has indeed become a muse in certain right-wing circles for whom the great mobilization against police violence in the summer of 2020 was the work of “antifas” or “anarchists”.
Conversely, on the left, he embodies the excesses of the culture of arms and the right to self-defense.
His trial, which is very popular in the United States, is expected to last a few more days.