Kyle Howard Rittenhouse (born January 3, 2003) is an American man who shot three men, two fatally, during the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020, when he was aged 17. Rittenhouse was acquitted at his trial in November 2021, after testifying that he had acted in self-defense.
Rittenhouse's prosecution attracted widespread media coverage, and became a cause célèbre for right-wing organizations and media. Following his trial, he attended several events hosted by conservative organizations and individuals, including a meeting with former president Donald Trump, television features with political commentator Tucker Carlson, and guest appearances at several Turning Point USA productions. Rittenhouse's likeness has been used by fans to sell products, especially T-shirts. In 2022, he started a fundraising effort to sue media outlets in civil court for alleged defamation and announced a video game, Kyle Rittenhouse's Turkey Shoot, to raise legal defense funds.
Early life and education
Kyle Howard Rittenhouse was born on January 3, 2003, in Antioch, Illinois, to Michael and Wendy Rittenhouse. His parents were married in Lake County, Illinois, in February 2000, three years before his birth. He has two siblings, an older sister and a younger sister. His parents separated by 2014.
As a high school freshman, Rittenhouse participated in the Explorers program at the Grayslake Police Department, as well as a cadet program at the Antioch Fire Department, with the goal of becoming a paramedic or working in law enforcement. Eventually transitioning to online school, he dropped out and left Lakes Community High School altogether in 2018 after attending for one semester in 2017–2018. He expressed interest in law enforcement through publicly-viewable social media posts. In December 2018, Rittenhouse started a fundraiser through Facebook for Humanizing the Badge, a nonprofit. Other posts revolved around "honoring police, with Blue Lives Matter graphics, photos of officers killed in the line of duty, and the "thin blue line" flag associated with support for law enforcement." On his TikTok profile description, Rittenhouse had written, "BLUE LIVES MATTER 🔵" and "Trump 2020 🇺🇸 🇺🇸".
On January 30, 2020, Rittenhouse attended a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa, seated in the front row. He got a part-time job as a lifeguard at the YMCA in Lindenhurst, but was furloughed in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.
Kenosha unrest shooting
On August 25, 2020, when he was 17, Rittenhouse shot three men during the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer. Rittenhouse was armed with an AR-15 style rifle and had joined a group of armed citizens in Kenosha who had said they were there to protect local businesses. Photographic evidence reveals that prior to unrest unfolding, Rittenhouse and others had participated in cleaning graffiti from a high school close to the Kenosha County Courthouse.
After a man chased him into a parking lot and grabbed the barrel of his rifle, Rittenhouse fatally shot him. Rittenhouse fled and was pursued by a crowd. He then fatally shot a second man after the man struck Rittenhouse with a skateboard and tried to grab his rifle. A third person approached Rittenhouse with his Glock pointed at him, but Rittenhouse shot and wounded the individual first.
Criminal trial
At a criminal trial in Kenosha in November 2021, prosecutors argued that Rittenhouse was seen as an active shooter and had provoked the other participants while defense lawyers argued that he had acted in self-defense, stating that he had used force necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself. A jury weighed two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, and two counts of reckless endangerment, and found Rittenhouse not guilty on all charges. Public sentiment and media coverage of the shootings was polarized and politicized, with an Economist/YouGov poll finding that two-thirds of Republicans thought Rittenhouse should be acquitted while three-quarters of Democrats thought he should be convicted.
Civil litigation
Rittenhouse was named as a defendant in two civil lawsuits following the incident.
In August 2021, the family of one of the men who was fatally shot filed a federal lawsuit in the Eastern District of Wisconsin against the police and county sheriff's departments in Kenosha, and later added Rittenhouse as a named defendant in January 2022.
In February 2023, the surviving man, Gaige Grosskreutz, also added Rittenhouse as a named defendant to a lawsuit filed in federal court in October 2021.