Kyle Rittenhouse Trial: Jury Finds Him Not Guilty On All Counts
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO/AP) -- Kyle Rittenhouse has been found not guilty on all counts in the Kenosha, Wisconsin fatal shootings, after the jury came to a verdict Friday.
Rittenhouse, 18, broke down in tears, nearly collapsing as the jury announced they had found him not guilty of all charges. He had faced five counts, including charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree reckless endangerment, first-degree intentional homicide, and attempted first-degree attempted homicide.
His mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, gasped in delight started crying, hugging others around her after the verdict.
Meanwhile, families of the men who were killed shook their heads and started to cry.
It came down on the fourth day of deliberations. Jurors heard from more than 30 witnesses during two weeks of testimony.
Rittenhouse was on trial for killing two men and wounding a third with a rifle during a turbulent night of protests that erupted in Kenosha in the summer of 2020 after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white police officer.
There was no question Rittenhouse shot anyone, and the trial boiled down to whether he was legitimately acting in self-defense.
Even as the jury weighed the evidence, two mistrial requests from the defense hung over the case, with the potential to upend the verdict if the panel were to convict Rittenhouse. One of those requests asks the judge to go even further and bar prosecutors from retrying him.
Also Thursday, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder banned MSNBC after police said they briefly detained a man who had followed the jury bus and may have tried to photograph jurors.
Things have remained calm in Kenosha for the two weeks of the trial, but Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers called up the state's National Guard in preparation for the verdict.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)