Two people were taken into custody Wednesday on the Kenosha County Courthouse steps a jury panel moves closer to a verdict in Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial, according to authorities.
Officers arrested a 20-year-old man for battery, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, police said. A 34-year-old woman was also arrested for disorderly conduct.
Officials said law enforcement deployed several officers to "keep crowds of citizens and media from interfering" during the arrests.
"The Kenosha Police Department and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department fully recognize the importance of media coverage surrounding the trial. The media and the public have a responsibility to give space to law enforcement and allow them to perform their duties. Please do so," Kenosha police said in a statement.
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The police department tweeted Wednesday afternoon that officials were aware of attempts to spread disinformation on social media surrounding the trial and that there is "no credible threat to public safety" at this time.
Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the jury for the day just before 4:30 p.m. Central, with the panel not coming to a decision on the five counts Rittenhouse is facing in connection with the case.
The day featured developments in several areas of the case. Schroeder defended his decision to allow Rittenhouse to pick the numbers of the jurors who would be sent to the alternate jury pool prior to the start of deliberations, and criticized media for their coverage of the case.
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Prosecutors and defense attorneys also sparred over the jury reviewing drone footage from the scene in Kenosha on the night of the shooting. The defense says it did not receive a full download of the drone video until Saturday, when the evidence phase of the trial had concluded.
Schroeder ruled that the dispute required the reopening of evidence and the testimony of an expert witness. Jurors were allowed to watch other videos in the courtroom, with the judge and media both leaving the room for those viewings.
Meanwhile, the defense in the case discussed its motion for a mistrial with the judge. That motion is now being considered without prejudice, meaning that a mistrial could still allow prosecution to re-file charges against Rittenhouse in the case.
Rittenhouse still faces five counts in the case, after an illegal weapons charge was dismissed by Schroeder.
Rittenhouse, now 18, was in Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to protect property from the damaging demonstrations that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer last summer.
While Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot, the case has stirred debate over vigilantism, the right to bear arms and the unrest that erupted around the U.S. that summer over the killing of George Floyd and the shooting of Blake.
Rittenhouse testified during the trial that he acted in self-defense. Wisconsin’s self-defense law allows someone to use deadly force only if “necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm,” and the jury has been tasked with deciding whether Rittenhouse believed he was in such peril, and whether that belief was reasonable under the circumstances.
For a recap of the latest updates from day two of deliberations Wednesday, click here.
