KENOSHA, Wis. — The Rittenhouse family's spokesperson, David Hancock, and Rittenhouse's lead defense attorney, Mark Richards, spoke with the news media after a jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts Friday.
Rittenhouse was on trial after shooting and killing two people and injuring a third amid protests and unrest in Kenosha last summer. Rittenhouse's defense argued self-defense, while prosecutors argued Rittenhouse was the instigator in the shootings.
About an hour after the verdict was announced - not guilty on all five counts Rittenhouse was facing - family spokesperson Hancock spoke to the news media.
He touched on not only what Rittenhouse's defense argued in Kenosha County Court but what lies in the future for the 18 year old.
"He is a caring, empathetic and he is a civic-minded young man. I think you are going to see some good things out of Kyle coming up, because he is very pragmatic about what has happened in the past year," Hancock said.
"He's got some things to say and I think you're going to be even more surprised by who Kyle actually is as he gets - as more people get to know him better," he said.
But Hancock also said that "there are no winners in this" and touched on how the trial has come to represent two sides of America: those supporting Black Lives Matter and police accountability, and those supporting gun rights and police departments.
"This case has divided so many different parts of America that had nothing to do with the fact whether or not he defended himself when being attacked. That is what this case has always been about. Did he defend himself when he was attacked," Hancock said.
Rittenhouse's lawyer speaks out
Also after the verdict Rittenhouse's lead defense lawyer, Mark Richards, spoke to the media and addressed the trial.
"To say we were relieved would be a gross mis-understatement. Kyle is not here - Kyle is on his way home. He wants to get on with his life. He has a huge sense of relief for what the jury did to him today. He wishes none of this would have ever happened. But as he said when he testified, he did not start this. And we're thankful in more ways than one that the jury finally got to hear the true story," Richards said. "The story that came out from the beginning [from social media] was not the true story. And that was something we had to work to overcome in court. And we think we did that."
Richards also spoke about the decision to have Rittenhouse testify.
"You want the truth? Had to put him on. It wasn't a close call, at certain points we wondered whether we would put him on," Richards said. "We had a mock jury. And we did two different juries, one with him testifying and one without him testifying. It was substantially better when he testified. I mean to a markedly degree. And that sealed it. But in Wisconsin if you don't put a client on the stand, you're going to lose. Period."
