The legal team for Kyle Rittenhouse has released a statement regarding his defense.
The
17-year-old was among a group protecting private properties during the ongoing
riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin. During an altercation with the rioters, he shot
three people, two of them fatally. He has been charged with First Degree
Intentional Homicide, Reckless Homicide, Attempted Intentional Homicide,
Recklessly Endangering Safety, and Possession of a Dangerous Weapon While Under
the Age of 18.
Rittenhouse
is being represented by Pierce Bainbridge, who also represented Representative
and former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard in her suit against Hillary
Clinton. Bainbridge is also joined by Nicholas Sandmann attorney L. Lin Wood,
and several other prominent criminal defense lawyers.
Bainbridge
released the following on Friday evening:
VERNON HILLS, ILLINOIS / August 28, 2020 / Pierce Bainbridge is
honored to represent 17-year old Antioch, Illinois resident Kyle Rittenhouse,
who has suddenly found himself at the center of a national firestorm and
charged with murder after defending himself from a relentless, vicious and
potentially deadly mob attack in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
On August 25th, 2020, Kenosha spiraled into chaos following the
Jacob Blake shooting. The Kenosha Mayor and Wisconsin Governor failed to
provide a basic degree of law and order to protect the citizens and community
buildings in Kenosha. The city burned as mobs destroyed buildings and property,
and looters stole whatever they wanted. Rioters defaced storefronts, the
courthouse, and many other public and private locations across the city.
After Kyle finished his work that day as a community lifeguard in
Kenosha, he wanted to help clean up some of the damage, so he and a friend went
to the local public high school to remove graffiti by rioters. Later in the
day, they received information about a call for help from a local business
owner, whose downtown Kenosha auto dealership was largely destroyed by mob
violence. The business owner needed help to protect what he had left of his
life’s work, including two nearby mechanic’s shops. Kyle and a friend armed
themselves with rifles due to the deadly violence gripping Kenosha and many
other American cities, and headed to the business premises. The weapons were in
Wisconsin and never crossed state lines.
Upon arrival, Kyle and others stood guard at the mechanic’s shop
across from the auto dealership to prevent further damage or destruction. Later
that night, substantially after the city’s 8:00 p.m. curfew expired without
consequence, the police finally started to attempt to disperse a group of
rioters. In doing so, they maneuvered a mass of individuals down the street
towards the auto shops. Kyle and others on the premises were verbally
threatened and taunted multiple times as the rioters passed by, but Kyle never
reacted. His intent was not to incite violence, but simply to deter property damage
and use his training to provide first aid to injured community members.
After the crowd passed the premises and Kyle believed the threat
of further destruction had passed, he became increasingly concerned with the
injured protestors and bystanders congregating at a nearby gas station with no
immediate access to medical assistance or help from law enforcement. Kyle
headed in that direction with a first aid kit. He sought out injured persons,
rendered aid, and tried to guide people to others who could assist to the
extent he could do so amid the chaos. By the final time Kyle returned to 2 the
gas station and confirmed there were no more injured individuals who needed
assistance, police had advanced their formation and blocked what would have
been his path back to the mechanic’s shop. Kyle then complied with the police
instructions not to go back there. Kyle returned to the gas station until he
learned of a need to help protect the second mechanic’s shop further down the
street where property destruction was imminent with no police were nearby.
As Kyle proceeded towards the second mechanic’s shop, he was
accosted by multiple rioters who recognized that he had been attempting to
protect a business the mob wanted to destroy. This outraged the rioters and
created a mob now determined to hurt Kyle. They began chasing him down. Kyle
attempted to get away, but he could not do so quickly enough. Upon the sound of
a gunshot behind him, Kyle turned and was immediately faced with an attacker
lunging towards him and reaching for his rifle. He reacted instantaneously and
justifiably with his weapon to protect himself, firing and striking the
attacker.
Kyle stopped to ensure care for the wounded attacker but faced a
growing mob gesturing towards him. He realized he needed to flee for his safety
and his survival. Another attacker struck Kyle from behind as he fled down the
street. Kyle turned as the mob pressed in on him and he fell to the ground. One
attacker kicked Kyle on the ground while he was on the ground. Yet another
bashed him over the head with a skateboard. Several rioters tried to disarm
Kyle. In fear for his life and concerned the crowd would either continue to
shoot at him or even use his own weapon against him, Kyle had no choice but to
fire multiple rounds towards his immediate attackers, striking two, including
one armed attacker. The rest of the mob began to disperse upon hearing the additional
gunshots.
Kyle got up and continued down the street in the direction of
police with his hands in the air. He attempted to contact multiple police
officers, but they were more concerned with the wounded attackers. The police
did not take Kyle into custody at that time, but instead they indicated he
should keep moving. He fully cooperated, both then and later that night when he
turned himself in to the police in his hometown, Antioch, Illinois.
Kyle did nothing wrong. He exercised his God-given, Constitutional,
common law and statutory law right to self-defense.
However, in a reactionary rush to appease the divisive,
destructive forces currently roiling this country, prosecutors in Kenosha did
not engage in any meaningful analysis of the facts, or any in-depth review of
available video footage (some of which shows that a critical state’s witness
was not even at the area where the shots were fired); this was not a serious
investigation. Rather, after learning Kyle may have had conservative political
viewpoints, they immediately saw him as a convenient target who they could use
as a scapegoat to distract from the Jacob Blake shooting and the government’s
abject failure to ensure basic law and order to citizens. Within 24-36 hours,
he was charged with multiple homicide counts.
Kyle now has the best legal representation in the country. With
help from Nicholas Sandmann attorney L. Lin Wood, Pierce Bainbridge and
multiple top-tier criminal defense lawyers in Wisconsin immediately offered
representation to Kyle.
Today, his legal team was successful in working with the public
defender to obtain a several-week continuance of his extradition hearing to
September 25th. This at least partially slows down the rush to judgment by a
government and media that is determined to assassinate his character and
destroy his life.
Kyle, his family, the team at Pierce Bainbridge and his other
lawyers intend to fight these charges every step of the way, take the case to
trial and win an acquittal on the grounds of self-defense before a jury of his
peers.
The legal fees and other costs of Kyle’s defense will be provided
through donations to #FightBack Foundation Inc., a Texas 501(c)(4) foundation
created by John Pierce and Lin Wood to protect lawabiding American citizens
whose rights are being trampled on by state and local governments that are more
concerned with appeasing mobs than protecting those rights.
Pierce Bainbridge founder John Pierce praised Kyle’s strength and
resilience. “A 17-year old child should not have to take up arms in America to
protect life and property. That is the job of state and local governments.
However, those governments have failed, and law-abiding citizens have no choice
but to protect their own communities as their forefathers did at Lexington and
Concord in 1775. Kyle is not a racist or a white supremacist. He is a brave,
patriotic, compassionate law-abiding American who loves his country and his
community. He did nothing wrong. He defended himself, which is a fundamental
right of all Americans given by God and protected by law. He is now in the
crosshairs of institutional forces that are much more powerful than him. But he
will stand up to them and fight not only for himself, but for all Americans and
their beloved Constitution. We will never leave his side until he is victorious
in that fight.”
Further updates will be provided as the investigation and legal
proceedings unfold.
#FightBack
