Kyle Rittenhouse pleads not guilty to killing 2 at protest after claiming HE would have died if he hadn't fired

KYLE Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to killing two people at a Wisconsin protest after claiming he would have died if he hadn't fired.

The 18-year-old entered his plea in a brief hearing conducted by teleconference on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who is white, left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and traveled to Kenosha.

Rittenhouse allegedly learned of a call to protect businesses in the wake of the August 23 shooting by police of Jacob Blake.

Blake, a black man, was shot seven times in the back and left paralyzed.

Rittenhouse opened fire with an assault-style rifle during protests two nights later, killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz.

Rittenhouse has argued he fired in self-defense.

In a jail house interview in November, Rittenhouse told the Washington Post: “No, I don't regret [carrying a gun that night]. I feel I had to protect myself. I would have died that night if I didn’t.”

"I was going into a place where people had guns. And God forbid, somebody brought a gun to me and decided to shoot me, like I wanted to be protected, which I ended up having to protect myself. "

His attorney, John M Pierce who has represented Trump's associates, previously said the teen "exercised his God-given, Constitutional, common law and statutory law right to self-defense."

Conservatives rallied around Rittenhouse, describing him as a patriot who took up arms to protect people and property, and raised enough money to make his $2million cash bail.

Others see him as a domestic terrorist whose presence with a rifle incited protesters. Rittenhouse was 17 at the time of the shootings.

More to follow…

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