The great aunt of Anthony Huber, one of the men who was fatally shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during the civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, defended her nephew's actions prior to his death.
“I’m firmly in the camp that he perceived an active shooter and he went to disarm that person,” Susan Hughes said. “That is the Anthony I knew. He was very much a person who would jump into action.”
According to a criminal complaint, Huber reached for Rittenhouse’s gun with his hand while holding the skateboard in the other.
“There were a couple of other people who did the same thing," Hughes said. "Nobody was successful. He lost his life. I was asked the other day by one of the media people if I thought Anthony would do the same thing again. And I think he would.”
Kyle Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richards told CNN that "Kyle said, if I had to do it all over again ... I wouldn't do it."
When asked if Rittenhouse wished he had not gone out that night and if he thinks he did anything wrong, Richards said, "Kyle said, if I had to do it all over again and had any idea something like this could happen, I wouldn't do it."
"I want to be clear. That is not regret for what he did that night under those circumstances," he added.
"Does he think he did anything wrong?" CNN asked.
"Legally, no," Richards replied.
As for morally, he said, "He wishes he didn't have to do it."
“The jury reached the correct verdict. Self Defense is not illegal. I believe they came to the correct verdict and I'm glad that everything went well,” Rittenhouse said in promotional trailer for a Tucker Carlson program.
Rittenhouse was riding in the back of a vehicle and appeared to be wearing the same outfit he had on when the verdict was read.
“It's been a rough journey, but we made it through it. We made it to the hard part," he said.
Mark Richards, an attorney for Kyle Rittenhouse, said Friday that he did not approve the Fox film crew that was embedded with the defense team during the trial.
“I threw them out of the room several times,” Richards told CNN. “I don't think a film crew is appropriate for something like this.”
“But the people who were raising the money to pay for the experts and to pay for the attorneys were trying to raise money," Richards added. "I don't want to say an evil, but a definite distraction was part of it. And I didn't approve of it. But I’m not always the boss.”
Lee Merritt, an attorney for Ahmaud Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told CNN Friday that the not guilty verdict handed down in the case of Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and shot another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was “deeply troubling” and “very scary” for Arbery's family as closing statements are expected Monday in the trial of three white men charged in Arbery’s killing.
“It is so similar. the Kyle Rittenhouse case was a case about vigilantism. this case is a case about vigilantism, and I’m hoping that the jury doesn't take the same course as the Rittenhouse jury,” Merritt said.
Merritt said the US justice system historically doesn't work well when the assailants are white.
“There's a long history of racism that exists within our courts. It's a reality,” Merritt said, “It's a statistical reality that we see playing itself out.”
Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and shot another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was acquitted Friday of first-degree intentional homicide and four other felony charges.
The sheets were filed with the Kenosha County Clerk of the Circuit Court. They show that the presiding juror in the case signed only two of the five "not guilty" verdicts today. The other three "not guilty" verdict sheets were dated Wednesday and Thursday.
Juror 54, the presiding juror in the case, signed the “not guilty” verdict sheets for counts 1 and 2 today. Rittenhouse faced a charge of first-degree reckless homicide for fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum in count 1. Count 2 stated that Rittenhouse recklessly endangered the safety of Richard McGinnis, who was near Rittenhouse during the first shooting.
The presiding juror in the case, signed the "not guilty" verdict sheet for count 5, on Thursday. Rittenhouse was charged in count 5 with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for shooting Gaige Grosskreutz.
Juror 54 signed the "not guilty" verdict sheets for counts 3 and 4 on Wednesday. Count 4, the most severe charge Rittenhouse faced, was first-degree intentional homicide for the fatal shooting of Anthony Huber. Rittenhouse was charged in count 3 with first-degree recklessly endangering the safety of an unknown man.
The 12-person jury deliberated for more than 25 hours over the course of four days.
Blake also discussed his nephew's case, saying he demands the case be reopened.
His shooting sparked unrest in Kenosha.
Kyle Rittenhouse's acquittal on all five counts sets a “dangerous precedent” that may embolden others, warned Jacob Blake's family attorney B'Ivory LaMarr, responding to the verdict today.
"I think this is a very, very dangerous precedent that has been set," said LaMarr when asked by CNN if he believed the verdict would embolden others to follow Rittenhouse's example.
LaMarr pointed to the shooting of Blake last summer, for which the White officer who shot him seven times in the back was never charged, saying the judicial system treats Black and White Americans differently.
"It's important that we have clear standards in being able to hold individuals accountable for engaging and provoking situations," he said. "I think that you don't see the same thing occur when it's African-Americans."
"I mean, hey, I hate to make this about race. But it is about race," he added.
The fiancée of Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men fatally shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, said, "I feel like in this case, the victims' lives don't matter."
"If one person's life or two persons’ lives don't matter, then none of our lives matter," Kariann Swart said while speaking to reporters following the verdict in the Rittenhouse trial. "And I feel like in this case, it feels like, the victims' lives don't matter. And I don't think that that is acceptable."