Kyle Rittenhouse acquitted: Protests erupt from New York to California

Demonstrators took to the streets from coast to coast after a jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all five counts.

The decision to put Kyle Rittenhouse on the stand in his own homicide trial wasn’t even a close call, his attorney said Friday, shortly after a jury acquitted him of all charges for killing two people and shooting another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year.

“We had a mock jury and we did two different juries, one with him testifying and one without him testifying. It was substantially better when he testified… and that sealed it,” said defense attorney Mike Richards. “If you don’t put a client on the stand, you’re going to lose, period.”

The jury found Rittenhouse not guilty in the killings of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, who were demonstrating in Kenosha on August 25, 2020, after police shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, who became paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the injury.

Rittenhouse was also found not guilty for wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27, who was at the protests.

The acquittal outraged the victims’ loved ones and others as the highly contentious case highlighted a national divide between those who saw Rittenhouse as a justice vigilante and those who viewed him as a citizen taking up arms to protect businesses from looters and rioters.

The verdict led to some protests late Friday.