Was kyle rittenhouse charged

1. The arrest and original charges: what prosecutors filed

Within days of the Aug. 25, 2020 shootings in Kenosha that left two men dead and a third wounded, Rittenhouse — then 17 — turned himself in and was charged by Wisconsin authorities with several offenses, including multiple counts tied to homicide and reckless endangerment, and a misdemeanor weapons charge among an initial slate of charges that at one point totaled seven counts in the indictment process ^{[1] [4] [3]}.

2. Pretrial rulings and whittling of the indictment

Before the jury ever deliberated, a Kenosha judge dismissed at least two charges after hearing legal arguments — notably a misdemeanor for possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor and a curfew violation — leaving the jury to consider five felony counts relating to the shootings as the trial proceeded ^{[5] [2] [6]}.

3. The trial and the self-defense claim that shaped the case

The trial—widely covered and dissected by legal commentators—pivoted on Rittenhouse’s assertion that he acted in self-defense during chaotic street confrontations, a defense the prosecution sought to rebut with testimony and video, and that legal framing was central to why many experts predicted the case’s outcome even before the jury began deliberating ^{[7] [8] [3]}.

4. Verdict: acquittal on the remaining counts

After several days of deliberation, the jury returned not-guilty verdicts on the five felony counts presented to them, resulting in Rittenhouse’s acquittal on all charges that went to the jury; media outlets, legal scholars and advocacy organizations documented the verdict and its polarizing reception across political and civil-rights lines ^{[3] [9] [10]}.

5. Aftermath and political and social reactions

The legal end of the criminal case did not end public debate: some conservative figures and supporters hailed Rittenhouse as having acted lawfully while many civil-rights groups condemned the verdict as emblematic of unequal treatment in the justice system; lawmakers in some states even introduced proposals — framed by proponents as “Kyle’s Law” — that would create statutory consequences or remedies tied to acquittals in self-defense cases, illustrating how the prosecution, trial and verdict reverberated beyond the courtroom ^{[11] [10] [12]}.

6. Limits of this summary and what it does not claim

This report confines itself to the criminal proceedings documented in contemporaneous reporting and legal summaries: it does not adjudicate factual disputes about the night of the shootings beyond what prosecutors alleged and what the defense presented at trial, nor does it address later civil actions or subsequent public statements that fall outside the cited trial coverage and legal analyses ^{[3] [8]}.

7. Bottom line answer to the question posed

Directly: yes — Rittenhouse was charged with multiple criminal counts, including homicide-related charges, some charges were dismissed by the judge pretrial, and he was ultimately acquitted by a jury on the counts that went to trial ^{[1] [2] [3]}.