(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expressed disappointment Friday in the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two people and wounded a third during unrest in Kenosha last year.
“I am aware of the jury’s verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case, and under our constitutional system, we must respect the jury’s decision,” the mayor said in a prepared statement after a jury found the Antioch man not guilty. “However, no one should ever take the law into their own hands, or attempt to make themselves the judge, jury, and executioner. What Kyle Rittenhouse did was reckless, dangerous, and showed an utter disregard for human life.”
The jury acquitted Rittenhouse on all five charges against him in a case that was politically and racially charged. The unrest in Kenosha was sparked by a white police officer’s shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, during a domestic call.
“Let us also remember and pray for Jacob Blake and his family as he continues his journey of rehabilitation,” Lightfoot said.
Rittenhouse, who was armed with a rifle, said he was acting in self-defense when activists attacked him.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker was more pointed in his criticisms of the trial’s outcome.
"Carrying a loaded gun into a community 20 miles from your home and shooting unarmed citizens is fundamentally wrong,” he said in a written statement. “It's a tragedy that the court could not acknowledge that basic fact.”
He said 26-year-old Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, “deserved to be alive today.”
“They deserve justice,” the Democratic governor said.
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