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.
He shot three white men and killed two of them. I think he was irresponsible and foolish to insert himself in the situation. I think his motivation for doing so was racially biased.
I also think it is important to be factual where possible. He’s already despicable for trying to benefit from the killings. Incorrectly labeling the victims as minorities, even by mistake, weakens the position against him by giving bad-faith actors a point of contention to home in on.
Fair, but I genuinely don’t know this guy, I’m genuinely asking for information. Killing 3 white guys doesn’t qualify you for public speaking either