A sensitive trial opened Monday in the northern United States, where a young white man is accused of murder for having shot two people during clashes on the sidelines of the major anti-racist protests in the summer of 2020.
Then aged 17, Kyle Rittenhouse had joined gunmen who presented themselves as “vigilante groups” eager to protect the town of Kenosha, Wisconsin, rioted after a police blunder.
A native of neighboring Illinois and himself equipped with a semi-automatic rifle, he opened fire under confusing circumstances, killing two men and injuring a third. All of his victims are white.
Arrested soon after, he was charged with murder and released on bail of two million dollars. He pleads not guilty and faces life imprisonment.
His lawsuit reflects American society’s fractures over guns and the Black Lives Matter movement.
It started in the morning with the selection of 12 jurors and their 8 substitutes, and is expected to last two to three weeks.
This jury will have to remain “fair and impartial” to “reach a rational decision” in this “very political” affair which was widely publicized in the country, underlined the judge Bruce Schroeder who presides the trial.
The court, located in the city center where hundreds of protesters gathered for several days last year, is protected by extensive security measures.
During the debates, prosecutors are expected to portray Kyle Rittenhouse as a right-wing extremist who came to Kenosha on purpose to do battle with anti-racist protesters.
His lawyers will plead the right to self-defense, claiming that he fired to protect himself from the rioters who were pursuing him.
“Dirty sheets”
On August 23, 2020, Kenosha burst into flames, because white police seriously injured a young black man, Jacob Blake, by shooting him in the back during an arrest attempt.
During the third night of riots, Kyle Rittenhouse, who had posted numerous messages in support of the police on the Internet, had driven about thirty kilometers to patrol the city. Several videos have captured his movements.
On one of the tapes, he appears to run away before another youngster collapses to the ground with a bullet in the head. In another, we see him being chased by a group, falling to the ground, turning around, weapon in hand. Shots are then audible.
“You saw the video, he was trying to escape them,” said Republican President Donald Trump during a visit to Kenosha in September 2020. “I imagine he was in a mess and he probably would have been killed. “
Since then, the young man has 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 violent radicals, “antifas” or “anarchists”.
Judge Schroeder, an experienced magistrate, has also sparked controversy by refusing prosecutors to speak of “victims” of those killed or injured by Kyle Rittenhouse, while allowing his lawyers to call them “rioters or looters” .