Kyle Rittenhouse abruptly departed the stage during an appearance at the University of Memphis on Wednesday, after he was confronted about comments made by Turning Point USA founder and president Charlie Kirk.

Rittenhouse was invited by the college’s Turning Point USA chapter to speak at the campus. However, the event was met with backlash from a number of students who objected to Rittenhouse’s presence.

The 21-year-old gained notoriety in August 2020 when, at the age of 17, he shot and killed two men—Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, as well as injuring 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz—at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He said the three shootings, carried out with a semi-automatic AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest where the shootings took place was held after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was left paralyzed from the waist down after he was shot by a white police officer.

  • @Samueru@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    28 months ago

    Yeah it is crazy how misinformation spreads, if you actually go back on reddit and check /r/news the day the ruling happened everybody pretty much knew that was going to be the result because of how much of a shitshow the trial was and that the prosecution had nothing in their case.

    But yeah the fact that people still spread blatant lies like “he drove across state lines with the rifle” is very chilling.

    • @EatATaco@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      28 months ago

      It’s the same thing with the Zimmerman/Martin. The facts don’t matter, just the narrative the originally caught on. Any deviation from this is met with derision. And I’m not saying one side only, I’ve been attacked by both the people who think Rittenhouse is completely innocent saint that is the victim of biased system, and those who think he is a cold blooded murderer that went there that day with the intent of murdering people. No room for nuance.