Rittenhouse jury calls it a night and will resume deliberations TOMORROW

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Jurors deciding the fate of Kyle Rittenhouse called time on their deliberations shortly before 6pm on Tuesday, and will resume on Wednesday morning.

The foreman of the jury informed Judge Bruce Schroeder at 5:50pm local time that they were done for the day.

They had arrived at the courthouse at 9am on Tuesday, and Rittenhouse then drew slips of paper out of a raffle drum to determine the six alternates.

The 12 remaining jurors, seven women and five men, deliberated all day, except for a lunch break around noon. 

Jurors requested copies of pages one to six of the jury instructions in the morning and then requested copies of the rest of the 36 pages in the afternoon 

With the jury quietly tucked away deliberating Rittenhouse‘s fate, decorum outside the Wisconsin courthouse dissolved into angry protests on Tuesday with the arrival of BLM activists and Second Amendment enthusiasts.   

Rittenhouse, now 18, was 17 when he shot dead two white BLM protesters at a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August, and injured a third. 

His lawyers say he was a scared boy acting in self-defense, eager to protect the town as it fell under siege from an angry mob. Prosecutors tried to paint him as a bloodthirsty vigilante and an embodiment of the systemic racism his victims were protesting against. 

The jury began discussions on Tuesday morning, after a dramatic two-week trial.

And, as their hushed deliberations began away from public view, protesters descended on the courthouse. 

One armed security guard wearing riot gear was among those outside. The guard told DailyMail.com he had been hired by a TV station to provide security for journalists who had been threatened recently. 

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On the steps of the courthouse, protesters chanted in each other’s faces in front of Jacob Blake’s uncle. It was Blake’s shooting and injuring by an officer that was the reason for the protest on August 20, 2020, that attracted Rittenhouse to Kenosha. 

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the Missouri couple who confronted BLM protesters marching near their property last year by toting their own guns, were there again to show Rittenhouse their support.

The sheriff’s department and police department issued a statement to try to quell the town’s anxiety, saying there were no plans yet for road closures, curfews or any other kind of restriction, but that safety remained the priority.

Five hundred National Guardsmen remain on stand-by near Kenosha, ready to step in if the situation escalates.

‘The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department and Kenosha Police Department understand and recognize the anxiety surrounding the Kyle Rittenhouse trial,’ the sheriff’s office said.

‘There are many questions being asked from our community as well as media outlets. 

‘Our departments have worked together and made coordinated efforts over the last year to improve response capabilities to large scale events.

‘We have also strengthened our existing relationships with State and Federal resources. At this time, we have no reason to facilitate road closures, enact curfews or ask our communities to modify their daily routines.

‘Lastly and most importantly, we have and will continue to be engaged with our community leaders.’ 

The jury has been asked to consider five charges: two counts of murder, one of attempted murder and two counts of recklessly endangering public safety. 

On Monday, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a charge of possession of a firearm under 18, citing a loophole that Rittenhouse’s legal team successfully argued that says the law makes it legal for people under 18 to carry long-barreled guns. 

It was a technicality that stunned the prosecution, which thought the gun charge was their only slam dunk. 

Rittenhouse’s legal team says he was acting in self-defense and that he was responding to a gunshot he heard behind him when he pulled the trigger. 

His mother Wendy has stated publicly that she believes he would be dead if he hadn’t pulled his own trigger, and that he was being chased by ‘a mob’. 

Rittenhouse sobbed on the witness stand and said he was traumatized by the day’s events.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki weighed in on the case on Monday night, condemning Rittenhouse as a ‘vigilante’. 

She also refused to explain on Monday why Joe Biden called Kyle Rittenhouse a ‘white supremacist’ immediately after the 17-year-old shot three white people during riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year. 

‘What I’m not going to speak to right now is anything about an ongoing trial nor the president’s past comments,’ she said, even though the president commented on the situation before it was litigated. 

But Psaki then made her feelings clear, saying: ‘What I can reiterate for you is the president’s view that we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons.

‘We shouldn’t have opportunists corrupting peaceful protests by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent – anywhere in the country.  

Two months before Biden was elected president, he criticized then-President Trump for refusing to condemn people who are against the Black Lives Matter riots as ‘white supremacists.’

The tweet from the then-candidate included an image of Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shooting.

‘There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night,’ Biden tweeted in September 2020. 

Psaki told Fox News’ Peter Doocy when talking about the case Monday: ‘As you know, closing arguments in this particular case, which I’m not speaking to, I’m just making broad comments about his own view – there’s an ongoing trial, we’re awaiting a verdict, beyond that, I’m not going to speak to any individual or this case.’

‘But the president has spoken to it already,’ Doocy shot back.

‘I just have nothing more to speak to an ongoing case,’ Biden’s top spokesperson said.

Republican Rep. Dan Bishop said Tuesday of Biden’s comments, ‘President Biden should be held accountable for wrongfully labeling a 17-year-old kid a ‘white supremacist.’ The facts of this case simply never mattered to Biden, this White House, or Congressional Democrats. They want to condemn someone who acted in self-defense against rioters, but seemingly have no problem with the very riots they cheered on last year.’

Addressing the remaining 12 jury members, Judge Bruce Schroeder said Tuesday: ‘It is for you to determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty.

‘You must make a finding on each count [and your] verdict on one count must not affect your finding on any other count.’  

Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said in closing arguments on Monday that when the shooting stopped, Rittenhouse walked off like a ‘hero in a Western.’

But Rittenhouse’s lawyer countered that the shooting started after the young man was ambushed by a ‘crazy person’ that night and feared his gun was going to be wrested away and used to kill him. 

The governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, has called up 500 members of the Wisconsin National Guard, to counter expected protest. 

‘We continue to be in close contact with our partners at the local level to ensure the state provides support and resources to help keep the Kenosha community and greater area safe,’ Evers stated.

‘The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing,’ Evers said. 

‘I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully.’  

Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department said they are monitoring the trial and are working with local and federal authorities to ensure the ‘safety of our communities.’