The young American Kyle Rittenhouse, who shot dead two people and injured a third on the sidelines of anti-racist protests in August 2020 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was acquitted on Friday after a well-attended trial in the United States.
Twelve jurors in a Wisconsin state court declared him “not guilty” of all five charges against him, including murders, on the fourth day of their deliberations.
The 18-year-old white man, who faced life imprisonment, had pleaded self-defense. Upon reading the verdict, he sobbed before quickly leaving the courtroom.
The trial, indicative of American society’s fractures over guns, the right to self-defense and the anti-racist Black Lives Matter (Black Lives Matter) movement, was broadcast widely in the country, which waited with some trepidation. The verdict.
As a precaution, the governor of Wisconsin has asked 500 National Guard soldiers to stand by to intervene in Kenosha.
On August 23, 2020, this city in the Great Lakes region was set on fire after a police blunder against an African-American.
Then aged 17, Kyle Rittenhouse had equipped himself with a semi-automatic rifle and had joined armed groups who had come to “protect” the businesses.
Under confusing circumstances, he opened fire, killing two men and injuring a third. All of his victims are white.
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