Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has authorized the use of 500 National Guard troops to help with any potential unrest as the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial comes to an end, reports television station WAOW.
“We continue to be in close contact with our partners at the local level to ensure the state provides support and resources to help keep the Kenosha community and greater area safe,” said Gov. Evers. “The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing.
"I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully.”
Jurors will soon begin deliberating in the case of Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old who killed two men and wounded a third during a night of turbulent unrest against racial injustices in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the summer of 2020.
Rittenhouse went to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to protect property from the protests that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.
Wisconsin’s self-defense law allows someone to use deadly force only if “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.”
Rittenhouse told the jury he shot Joseph Rosenbaum after Rosenbaum chased him and put his hand on the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle. He said he then shot Anthony Huber after Huber struck him in the neck with his skateboard and grabbed his gun.
When a third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, “lunges at me with his pistol pointed directly at my head,” Rittenhouse shot him, too, wounding him.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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