WASHINGTON

A jury in the US state of Wisconsin acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts in a closely watched trial following the fatal shootings of two protesters and the wounding of a third.

Rittenhouse, now 18, broke down in tears as the verdict was read aloud in the Kenosha courtroom, hugging one of his attorneys in apparent relief.

He had faced the possibility of life in prison after being charged with five counts, including first-degree intentional homicide.

Judge Bruce Schroeder last week dismissed a charge of illegal gun possession against Rittenhouse. He had been accused of illegally possessing an AR-15 assault rifle when he shot two men dead, and wounded a third, during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Kenosha last summer.

Demonstrations, sometimes violent, had broken out after a Kenosha police officer shot an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, in August. Blake was left partially paralyzed.

Rittenhouse claims he was invited to the streets of Kenosha by property owners last August, to help with protection, after a night of looting and fires. He says he shot the three men in self-defense after all three came towards him. Supporters of him from around the country raised around $2 million dollars for his bail money.

The prosecution maintained Rittenhouse had no business being there, 20 miles from his hometown in neighboring Antioch, Illinois. Prosecutors said Rittenhouse was, in fact, the aggressor, and that he was part of a vigilante mob determined to intimidate Black Lives Matter demonstrators.