A US teenager who shot dead two men during racial justice protests has been cleared of homicide and all other charges after claiming self-defence.
18 year old Kyle Rittenhouse killed the men and wounded a third on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on 26th August last year.
During the high profile and politically divisive trial, his defence said he had feared for his life. Prosecutors argued he was looking for trouble that night.
National Guard troops have been sent to the city amid fears of unrest.
Rittenhouse faced five charges, including intentional homicide, which carries a life sentence.
His fate was decided by a 12-person jury composed of seven women and five men, who had spent more than three days deliberating.
The teenager stood with his lawyer to hear the verdict, then he began to shake with sobs and nearly collapsed as he heard the words "not guilty" read out five times.
Two nights before he turned up in Kenosha last year, riots had erupted on its streets after police shot Jacob Blake, a black man, leaving him paralysed.
Rittenhouse, then aged 17, had travelled to the city from his home in Illinois and was armed with a semi-automatic rifle.
He had said he sought to help protect property from unrest.
The case has become a flashiness in the highly polarized debate over guns rights in the US.
[Source: BBC]
