Kyle Rittenhouse is an 18-year-old who was charged with homicide after shooting and killing two Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, June of 2020. His trials and case started on November 1.

In the city of Kenosha, Black Lives Matter protesters were burning buildings and certain parts of the city that the cops could keep enclosed. To help with medical attention to others, Rittenhouse did lie about his age to carry a gun but to also go out and help the people in need. Rittenhouse stated according to 5 Chicago News, “People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business,” Rittenhouse told a reporter from the Daily Caller before the shootings. “And part of my job is to also help people. If there is somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle.” 

While he was out in Kenosha volunteering to clean graffiti off a high school, he met the owners of a car dealership, and when the owners had to attend to ‘condolences’, they asked Rittenhouse to watch their business so nothing else would burn. 5 Chicago News claimed, “He said he had been putting out fires and asking people if they needed medical help when he saw Rosenbaum carrying a steel chain and wearing a mask. Rosenbaum began screaming at him, he said.” Right after that encounter Rosenbaum threatens to kill Kyle and his friends. Twice. Kyle’s response was to defend himself and shoot the three men who were chasing him and threatening to end his life. 

Rittenhouse claimed that Grosskreuz “lunged at me with his pistol pointed directly at my head”. Grosskreuz, the last of the three men, was only wounded by the gunshot. Huber, who was the second to advance, was earlier seen ‘swinging at him with a skateboard’ and shouting in his face. 5 Chicago News reported that “He said he then shot and killed Huber after Huber struck him in the neck with his skateboard and grabbed his gun.” The first man to cause harm to  Rittenhouse was Rosenbaum, who was shot and killed because he was trying to take Kyle’s gun out of his hands by the barrel. Intending to kill him after. “Rittenhouse testified he fatally shot Rosenbaum after Rosenbaum chased him and put his hand on the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle.” 5 Chicago News previously stated. 

As the trial was near its end, some of Rittenhouse’s lawyers asked the judge to declare a mistrial over the video of the murders. The judge of the trial, Bruce Schroeder, has dropped all charges for Rittenhouse. Kyle Rittenhouse was cleared as not guilty across the globe on November 19, three weeks later.