Rittenhouse, 18, was found not guilty on five charges, including two counts of first-degree reckless homicide and one count of first-degree intentional attempted homicide.
A sixth charge, possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, was dismissed on Monday, November 15, after his lawyers argued that his rifle was not short-barreled and therefore did not fall under the law.
On August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse shot and killed two left-wing extremists and wounded a third during riots and unrest in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, was in Kenosha purportedly to protect a business and provide medical aid. He lived in the neighboring town of Antioch, Illinois, although his father and other family members lived in Kenosha.
Bruce Schroeder, the Kenosha County judge who presided over the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, ruled that the two men killed and the third wounded during a protest in that Wisconsin city could not be referred to as "victims": "The word 'victim' is a very, very loaded word. And I think 'alleged victim' is a derivative of it," the judge stated, as quoted by "USA Today".
He requested the use of terms such as "complaining witness," "deceased," or even "arsonists," "rioters," and "looters" by the prosecutor, the plaintiffs' lawyers, and the defense, arguing that there cannot be victims without a prior declaration of guilt.
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A decision criticized by prosecutor Thomas Binger, who denounced a "double standard":
" I think it's the same problem. The terms I read here, like rioter, looter, arsonist, are just as loaded, if not more so, than the term victim ".
Rittenhouse's lawyers asserted that their client acted in self-defense. During the trial, Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot and wounded by Rittenhouse, admitted to being wounded after pointing his own firearm at him.
Additional video footage from that evening reinforced Rittenhouse's self-defense claims.
The unrest in late August 2020 was triggered by the police shooting on August 23, 2020, following the arrest of a 29-year-old man named Jacob Blake. Blake was left partially paralyzed, and the police officer was not charged.
Protests by left-wing extremists and looters lasted for four days, causing an estimated $52 million in property damage.