Kyle Rittenhouse has spoken out about his "support" for the Black Lives Matter movement, days after he was acquitted by a jury in his highly publicized homicide trial.
On Friday, November 19, 18-year-old Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all five charges in his homicide trial, after four days of deliberation by the jury.
He was arrested after he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz on August 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during riots that arose after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man.
On Sunday, November 21, the teenager was interviewed by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, as part of a program that will air tonight.
Check out what he had to say below:Per the Daily Mail, Rittenhouse told the conservative TV personality: "This case has nothing to do with race. It had nothing to do with race, had to do with the right to self-defense."
He then insisted: "I'm not a racist person, I support the BLM movement and peacefully demonstrating."
Rittenhouse also hit out at the prosecution team in his trial for portraying him as a vigilante who armed himself with a gun he was not legally allowed to carry - and as someone who was seeking revenge against anti-police protestors, USA Today reports.
Prosecutors also argued that Rittenhouse, whose Illinois home is about 20 miles away from Kenosha, was merely "drawn to the chaos" in the city.
Rittenhouse's legal team, on the other hand, insisted that the young man had traveled to Kenosha in order to protect businesses and prevent mayhem in the city.
"I believe there's a lot of prosecutorial misconduct, not just in my case but in other cases," Rittenhouse told Carlson. "It's just amazing to see how much a prosecutor can take advantage of someone."
He also recalled the fear he felt moments before he shot dead two men and injured a third.
"I tell everybody there what happened," he said. "I said I had to do it. I was just attacked. I was dizzy. I was vomiting. I couldn't breathe."
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the deadly incident, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
He denied all the charges, stating that he acted in self-defense and was ultimately acquitted by a 12-person jury.