Trial of the murder of 2 anti-racist protesters opens in the United States

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WASHINGTON –

A very sensitive trial is due to open in the United States on Monday in the case of a young man accused of killing two people by gunshot during one of the tumultuous anti-racism protests that swept through the United States in the summer 2020.

Kyle Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, said he wanted to help vigilante groups trying to protect the town of Kenosha, Wis., Following riots over police shooting who crippled a black man.

Armed with a semi-automatic rifle, he opened fire under confused circumstances, killing two men, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and seriously injuring a third, Gaige Grosskreutz. All three were white.

Arrested soon after, Rittenhouse was charged with five counts, including first degree homicide, before being released on $ 2 million bail.

This large sum was quickly collected by supporters across the country, including a prominent supporter of Donald Trump, the head of the pillow company Mike Lindell, as well as actor Ricky Schroder.

If convicted at trial in Kenosha County Circuit Court, Rittenhouse faces a life sentence.

The trial, which begins Monday with jury selection, seems certain to highlight the deep divides in American society over gun rights and the Black Lives Matter movement.

Prosecutors are expected to portray Rittenhouse as a right-wing extremist who came to Kenosha with the specific intention of confronting anti-racist protesters.

His own lawyers will say he acted in self-defense, shooting only to protect himself from the rioters pursuing him.

“Very big trouble”

On August 23, 2020, Kenosha was in flames amid protests that sparked when white police seriously injured a black man, Jacob Blake, repeatedly shooting him in the back during an attempted arrest.

On the third night of rioting, Rittenhouse, who had posted numerous posts online supporting the police, walked 30 kilometers from his home in northern Illinois to Kenosha, just across the border. of Wisconsin.

Several videos captured his movements that night.

On one of them, Rittenhouse appears to flee just before another young man falls to the ground with a gunshot wound to the head.

In another, he is seen being chased by a small group of demonstrators. He falls, then points his gun. The sound of gunshots is clearly audible.

“I guess he had really big problems” after protesters “violently attacked him,” President Trump said during a visit to Kenosha in early September. “He would probably have been killed.

Since then, Rittenhouse has become something of a poster child in some right-wing circles, where the widespread protests of 2020 have been blamed on the violent radicals, the anti-fascist group known as the “antifa” or anarchists.

The judge overseeing the trial, Bruce Schroeder, has vowed to keep politics out of the trial.

But he has raised questions by refusing to allow prosecutors to label those killed or injured by Rittenhouse as “victims,” ​​while ruling that they can be characterized as “rioters,” “looters” or ” arsonists “if the defense lawyers can show they had engaged in such acts.

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