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Kyle Rittenhouse ® reacts after he is found not guilty on all counts
at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis.,
in a still from video taken on Nov. 19, 2021.
(Pool via CBS, Reuters/Screenshot via NTD)




Kyle Rittenhouse Acquitted on All Counts



BY JACKSON ELLIOTT AND ZACHARY STIEBER
November 19, 2021
Updated: November 19, 2021



KENOSHA, Wisconsin
Jurors acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts on Friday.

The jury reached the verdict just after 12:10 p.m. local time and the foreman
read it aloud in the Kenosha County Courthouse shortly afterwards.

Rittenhouse, 18, sat quietly before the verdict was read. Afterwards, he started
shaking and breathing heavily. He hugged his lawyer.

“You were a wonderful jury to work with,” Kenosha County Circuit Judge
Bruce Schroeder told jurors.

Schroeder also told the court not to react, “no matter how strongly” they feel
about the decision.

Rittenhouse faced up to life in prison for five charges, including first-degree
reckless homicide. A sixth charge was dropped on Monday.



Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, reacts as her son is found
not guilty on all counts at the Kenosha County Courthouse in
Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 19, 2021.
(Sean Krajacic/Pool via Getty Images)


Rittenhouse shot three men in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. The first man,
Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, was advancing on him. Rosenbaum’s hand was over
the barrel of the rifle Rittenhouse held, according to expert testimony during
the trial. The closest witness said Rosenbaum lunged for the weapon.

Rittenhouse began running towards law enforcement officers but was attacked
by several people, including Anthony Huber, 26, who struck Rittenhouse’s head
with a skateboard. Rittenhouse shot Huber.

The third man who was shot, Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28, was pointing a handgun
at Rittenhouse when he was fired upon.

Rosenbaum and Huber died from their wounds. Grosskreutz survived with a
gunshot wound to his right bicep.

Defense lawyers and Rittenhouse said all three shootings were in self-defense.
Prosecutors said Rittenhouse was negligent and reckless in his handling of the
weapon and should have surrendered to those attacking him.




People are seen outside the Kenosha County Courthouse after Kyle Rittenhouse
was acquitted of all counts, in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 18, 2021.
(Jackson Elliott/The Epoch Times)




Wisconsin National Guard troops were stationed earlier this week about 60 miles
outside of Kenosha in case riots started in response to the verdict.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, had called for peace no matter
what the jury decided.

“I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community
by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose
to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully,”
Evers said in a statement.

Authorities in Kenosha said Tuesday that nothing had happened yet to trigger road
closures or other crowd control measures. They did not immediately respond
to the verdict.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a briefing just before the verdict
that the White House would issue a statement after it was issued.

“We have been in close contact with officials on the ground through law enforcement
channels to ensure we are supporting any efforts toward peaceful protest,” she said.




Susan Hughes ©, Anthony Huber’s great aunt, and Hubers girlfriend
Hannah Gittings, (L), leave the Kenosha County Courthouse after hearing
a not guilty verdict in the Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 19, 2021.
(Nathan Howard/Getty Images)



Outside the courthouse, pro- and anti-Rittenhouse protesters gathered, as they have
been all week as the jury deliberated.

Vaun Mayes, who lives in Milwaukee, told The Epoch Times that the verdict wasn’t correct.

“It sends a message to the rest of the nation that folks can come down and agitate them,
and if anyone reacts you can shoot them,” he said. “Kyle did everything he was not
supposed to do and this was the result. He gets to claim self defense and walk away.”

Another man, who declined to be named but said he was from Los Angeles, said the verdict

“meant the Second Amendment survived.”


“Kudos to the court,” he said.

Quote:Who did he shoot?

Rosenbaum, 36, was released the day of the shootings from a
Milwaukee hospital where he had been treated for a suicide attempt.
It’s not clear why he was on Kenosha’s streets the night of the protests,
though he had a fiancé who lived in the city. His background includes a
conviction for sexual conduct with a minor in Arizona in 2002.


Huber is seen on video swinging a skateboard at Rittenhouse
before he was shot. He was known around Kenosha’s skateboarding
community, and his girlfriend, Hannah Gittings, said skateboarding was
his life. Huber served a pair of prison stints stemming from family conflict,
including choking his brother in 2012.


Grosskreutz previously said he attended several protests following
Floyd’s May 2020 death. With training as a paramedic, Grosskreutz had carried
medical supplies and was doing so the night of the Kenosha shootings.
He was also armed with a pistol and had it in his hand when he approached
Rittenhouse, who shot him in the arm.