Teenage gunman who shot dead two men at Wisconsin protest is cleared of murder

Published

4 years ago

November 16, 2021

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A teenager has been found not guilty of the murders of two men and the attempted murder of a third at a demonstration in Wisconsin.

Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, had pleaded self-defence over the shootings in the city of Kenosha in August 2020.

The deadly incident happened during protests sparked by the shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, who was injured by a white police officer days earlier.

Rittenhouse was cleared of all charges, including recklessly endangering safety. As the verdicts were read out, he broke down in tears, while jurors remained stoic and emotionless.

Live reaction as Rittenhouse acquitted

Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the jurors and assured them the court would take “every measure” to keep them safe.

A sheriff’s deputy took Rittenhouse out via a back door through the judge’s chambers.

Relatives of the three men who were shot held hands and cried.

Outside the courthouse, there was a heavy police presence, as several dozen protesters carried placards supporting or condemning the teenager.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, had travelled from the neighbouring state of Illinois.

He claimed in court that he had been asked to help protect the community by a local business owner.

The jury of 12 had been selected from a wider group of 18 who had listened to the evidence over two weeks.

In an unusual move, marking the beginning of a trial full of suspense and drama, Rittenhouse himself was asked to select the jurors by pulling six pieces of paper with their names on them from a lottery tumbler – a task usually carried out by a court clerk.

The six jurors he selected were designated as alternative jurors while the remaining 12 became the deliberating jurors.

The jury had been asked to consider two widely conflicting narratives which led to the shooting of the three men.

The prosecution had argued that Rittenhouse was a “wannabe soldier” and a vigilante who had travelled to Kenosha bent on stirring trouble at the protest.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger had argued that the teenager had caused a deadly chain of events by bringing a legally owned automatic AR15 rifle to a protest, walking about like “a hero in a western” and that he was “looking for trouble”.

After the verdict, Mr Binger said that the jury had spoken.

During the protest, Rittenhouse first shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, who was unarmed.

He then shot Anthony Huber, 26, who had struck the defendant with a skateboard. He was also killed.

The third man to be shot, Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, was carrying a pistol.

He was injured and gave evidence for the prosecution.

The court saw footage from a drone which the prosecution argued showed the defendant pointing his weapon at people.

“This is provocation,” the prosecuting attorney had argued. “This is what starts this incident.”

Rittenhouse’s defence attorney, Mark Richards, argued that his client was acting in self-defence after coming under attack at the protest.

Mr Richards said Rittenhouse had travelled to the city to act as a medic and to protect property.

The defence had cast the first of Rittenhouse’s targets as a “crazy person”.

Mr Richards argued that Joseph Rosenbaum ambushed the defendant who had feared that his rifle would be taken from him and used against him.

At times during proceedings, Rittenhouse broke down in tears as he gave his own evidence.

Mr Huber’s parents Karen Bloom and John Huber said after the verdicts that they were “heartbroken and angry”.

“Today’s verdict means there is no accountability for the person who murdered our son.

“It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.

“We hope that decent people will join us in forcefully rejecting that message and demanding more of our laws, our officials, and our justice system.”

Rittenhouse’s mother Wendy had gasped in delight when the verdicts were read, later crying and embracing those around her.

David Hancock, spokesman for the Rittenhouse family, said: “We are all so very happy that Kyle can live his life as a free and innocent man, but in this whole situation there are no winners – there are two people who lost their lives and that’s
not lost on us at all.”

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president and chief executive Derrick Johnson wrote on Twitter that the verdict “is a reminder of the treacherous role that white supremacy and privilege play within our justice system”.

Also on Twitter, the National Rifle Association wrote: “A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”

Black Voters Matter wrote: “Disappointed but not surprised. This is not justice, this is not accountability. However, this is America.”

US President Joe Biden said: “While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.

“I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us.

“I know that we’re not going to heal our country’s wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law.”

He added: “I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law.

“Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy.

“The White House and federal authorities have been in contact with Governor Evers’s office to prepare for any outcome in this case, and I have spoken with the governor this afternoon and offered support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety.”

Wisconsin’s governor Tony Evers said: “No verdict will be able to bring back the lives of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, or heal Gaige Grosskreutz’s injuries, just as no verdict can heal the wounds or trauma experienced by Jacob Blake and his family.

“No ruling today changes our reality in Wisconsin that we have work to do towards equity, accountability and justice that communities across our state are demanding and deserve.”

He asked any protesters to have their voices heard “safely and peacefully”.

About 500 members of the Wisconsin National Guard have been placed on standby in an undisclosed location 60 miles from the city to move in at the order of the governor.

The units will not be deployed unless the local police in the city requests their assistance. Their role will be limited to protecting locations deemed critical infrastructure and cultural institutions.

Residents of the city are nervous having experienced the significant unrest last summer in the wake of the shooting by police of 29-year-old Jacob Blake.

The shooting – one of a number last year by police against the black community – promoted widespread protests in Kenosha.

In his closing instructions to the jurors, the judge, Bruce Schroeder explained that in order to accept Rittenhouse’s claim of self-defence, they must accept that he believed there was an unlawful threat to him and that the force he used was “reasonable and necessary”.

US

‘Deeply ashamed’ former US treasury secretary Larry Summers quits public life over links to Jeffrey Epstein

Published

13 hours ago

November 18, 2025

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'Deeply ashamed' former US treasury secretary Larry Summers quits public life over links to Jeffrey Epstein

Former US treasury secretary Larry Summers has said he is stepping back from public life as emails showed he continued to communicate with Jeffrey Epstein after the paedophile financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

Mr Summers, a former president of Harvard University, kept in touch with Epstein after the billionaire financier pleaded guilty in 2008, emails released last week showed.

The Harvard professor said in a statement sent to the university’s student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, and other media outlets on Monday that he wanted to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me”.

“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognise the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein,” he said.

Epstein took his own life in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.

In an email that year, Mr Summers asked Epstein for guidance in relation to a woman with whom he was trying to start a relationship.

In the message, Mr Summers wrote: “I said what are you up to. She said ‘I’m busy’. I said awfully coy u are.”

Epstein, who often wrote with spelling and grammatical errors, replied: “You reacted well.. annoyed shows caring. , no whining showed strentgh.”

Their correspondence was among thousands of Epstein emails published by the US House of Representatives.

When asked about the emails last week, Mr Summers said in a statement that he has “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgement”.

The emails showed many in Epstein’s vast network of wealthy and influential friends continued to stay in touch long after his 2008 guilty plea.

Mr Summers, a Democrat who served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under former US president Bill Clinton and National Economic Council director under former US president Barack Obama, would continue to teach, he said.

According to his website, he teaches several economics courses at the prestigious US university, where he was president for five years from 2001.

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He is also a director of the school’s Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government and serves on the board of OpenAI.

Sky News has contacted Harvard University for comment.

Current US President Donald Trump called on Sunday for all the files to be released, a change of tack after he earlier dismissed the matter as a “hoax” perpetrated by the Democrats.

Mr Trump is one of a number of high-profile figures, who have been referenced in some of the documents.

The president has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

The White House has said the “selectively leaked emails” are an attempt to “create a fake narrative” to smear Mr Trump.

The House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday on forcing the release of the documents.

On Monday, US attorney general Pam Bondi said she ordered a top federal prosecutor to investigate Epstein’s ties to Mr Trump’s political enemies, including Mr Clinton.

US

Most advanced US aircraft carrier arrives close to Venezuela as Donald Trump administration builds-up forces

Published

1 day ago

November 17, 2025

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The most advanced US aircraft carrier has travelled to the Caribbean Sea in what has been interpreted as a show of military power and a possible threat to Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro regime.

The USS Gerald R Ford and other warships arrived in the area with a new influx of troops and weaponry on Sunday.

It is the latest step in a military build-up that the Donald Trump administration claims is aimed at preventing criminal cartels from smuggling drugs to America.

Since early September, US strikes have killed at least 80 people in 20 attacks on small boats accused of transporting narcotics in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean.

Mr Trump has indicated that military action would expand beyond strikes by sea, saying the US would “stop the drugs coming in by land”.

The US government has released no evidence to support its assertions that those killed in the boats were “narcoterrorists”, however.

The arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford now rounds off the largest increase in US firepower in the region in generations.

With its arrival, the “Operation Southern Spear” mission includes nearly a dozen navy ships and about 12,000 sailors and marines.

Rear Admiral Paul Lanzilotta, who commands the strike group, said it will bolster an already large force of American warships to “protect our nation’s security and prosperity against narco-terrorism in the Western Hemisphere”.

Admiral Alvin Holsey, the US commander who oversees the Caribbean and Latin America, said in a statement that the American forces “stand ready to combat the transnational threats that seek to destabilise our region”.

Government officials in Trinidad and Tobago have announced that they have already begun “training exercises” with the US military that are due to run over the next week.

The island is just seven miles from Venezuela at its closest point.

The country’s minister of foreign affairs, Sean Sobers, said the exercises were aimed at tackling violent crime in Trinidad and Tobago, which is frequently used by drug traffickers as a stopover on their journey to Europe or North America.

Venezuela’s government has described the training exercises as an act of aggression.

They had no immediate comment on Sunday regarding the arrival of the USS Gerald R Ford.

The US has long used aircraft carriers to pressure and deter aggression by other nations because its warplanes can strike targets deep inside another country.

Some experts say the Ford is ill-suited to fighting cartels, but it could be an effective instrument of intimidation to push Mr Maduro, who faces charges of narcoterrorism in the US, to step down.

Mr Maduro has said the US government is “fabricating” a war against him.

The US president has justified the attacks on drug boats by saying the country is in “armed conflict” with drug cartels, while claiming the boats are operated by foreign terrorist organisations.

US politicians have pressed Mr Trump for more information on who is being targeted and the legal justification for the boat strikes.

Elizabeth Dickinson, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for the Andes region, said: “This is the anchor of what it means to have US military power once again in Latin America.

“And it has raised a lot of anxieties in Venezuela but also throughout the region. I think everyone is watching this with sort of bated breath to see just how willing the US is to really use military force.”

US

Marjorie Taylor Greene ‘open to moving forward’ after row with Donald Trump

Published

1 day ago

November 17, 2025

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Marjorie Taylor Greene 'open to moving forward' after row with Donald Trump

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has said she is ready to mend relations with Donald Trump after a high-profile row between the pair.

The former MAGA ally had accused the president of “coming after me hard” over her efforts to get more Jeffrey Epstein files released.

But writing on X on Sunday, she said forgiveness was a “major part” of her Christian faith.

“I’m here to show how it’s possible to settle our differences and move forward as Americans,” she wrote. “That’s why I’m always willing to go on shows with different viewpoints.

“I truly believe in forgiveness and I am open to moving forward with the President.”

A day earlier, Ms Greene said she was facing threats after a barrage of criticism from Mr Trump – who has called her “wacky”, a “traitor” and a “ranting lunatic”.

Ms Greene claimed “a hotbed of threats” were “being fuelled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”.

However, her attempt to build bridges appears to have fallen flat.

Mr Trump said on Truth Social on Sunday night that she was trying to portray herself as a victim and “nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!”

The row began when a petition to vote on the full release of the Epstein files received enough signatures – including Ms Greene’s – to bring it to a vote in the House of Representatives.

Despite his attacks, Trump said on social media on Sunday that “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide…”

High-profile figures, including Mr Trump, have been referenced in some of the documents.

The president has called the Epstein files a “hoax” by the Democrats and has consistently denied any involvement or knowledge about Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.

The White House has said the “selectively leaked emails” are an attempt to “create a fake narrative” to smear Mr Trump.

Epstein took his own life in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.