Kyle Rittenhouse 'wishes he didn't have to' shoot 3 people, his lawyer says

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Kyle Rittenhouse 'wishes he didn't have to' shoot 3 people, his lawyer says
Kyle Rittenhouse reacts to being acquitted on all charges on Friday.Sean Krajacic - Pool/Getty Images
  • Kyle Rittenhouse was fully acquitted Friday of the five charges in his homicide trial.
  • Rittenhouse stood trial for fatally shooting two men and injuring a third during civil unrest last year.
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Kyle Rittenhouse's attorney said the teenager doesn't think he did anything legally wrong when he fatally shot two people and injured a third, but that "he wishes he didn't have to do it."

Attorney Mark Richards spoke with CNN in an interview Friday after Rittenhouse, his client, was found not guilty on all charges in his homicide trial.

CNN's Chris Cuomo asked Richards if Rittenhouse "thinks he did anything wrong."

"Kyle said: 'If I had to do it all over again and I had any idea something like this would happen. I wouldn't do it,'" Richards said.

He added: "I want to be clear that is not regret for what he did that night under those circumstances. Hindsight is always 20/20, if not better, and he didn't want to kill anybody and he was left with a terrible choice and he exercised that choice, which was found to be lawful."

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Rittenhouse was on trial for fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz on August 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during civil unrest that erupted after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

He faced five charges: two counts of first-degree homicide for Rosenbaum's and Huber's deaths, attempted first-degree homicide connected to Grosskreutz's injury, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety.

Rittenhouse and his attorneys said he was acting in self-defense.

Cuomo asked Richards again: "Does he think he did anything wrong?"

"Legally, No," Richards replied.

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"Morally?" Cuomo followed up.

"He wishes he didn't have to do it," Richards said. "This case as you said has been so political. So yes, or no. The narrative that came out was not the truth. At trial, it did come out."

Richards said Rittenhouse had ties to the Kenosha neighborhood he was in and that he was there to help people. He said the prosecution "wanted to portray him as a liar and fireman wanna-be" in order to get a conviction.

Prosecutors accused Rittenhouse's lawyers of dishonesty, Insider's Michelle Mark and Rebecca Cohen previously reported.

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