KENOSHA, WIS. — With an armed protester standing outside the courthouse, jurors in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial have begun their second day of deliberations Wednesday.

       The panel — consisting of seven women and five men — spent more than 8 hours deliberating Tuesday without reaching a verdict. Jurors offered few insights into their Day One discussions, sending only two notes asking for copies of jury instructions.

       While the predominantly white jury debated the very specific legal question at the heart of the teen’s self-defense case, protesters outside the courthouse have been arguing over the broader issues of gun rights and racial inequities that have loomed large over the case from the onset.

       A demonstrator walks with a rifle and a bullhorn outside the Kenosha County Courthouse protesting against Black Lives Matter on Nov. 17, 2021. (John Keilman/Chicago Tribune)

       Demonstrations have been low-key throughout the trial, but they began to intensify as the jury deliberated. At one point, a group on the courthouse steps chanted “Black Lives Matter,” while a man on a bullhorn needled them about Joseph Rosenbaum, one of the men Rittenhouse killed, being a convicted sex offender.

       That same man — who brought his dog to the demonstrations Tuesday — returned Wednesday morning with an AR-15. Wearing a tactical vest, button down shirt, bow tie with slacks and dress shoes, the man spent part of the morning yelling “Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization” and screaming “(expletive) BLM!” through a megaphone as he stood in the public way across the street from the courthouse.

       Kenosha County sheriff’s deputies told the man, who arrived in a Maserati with Illinois plates, that he could not have the rifle there because he was within 1,000 feet of a school and did not have a concealed carry permit.

       “If you want to be here, you’re going to have to put the rifle away,” a deputy said.

       Under Wisconsin law, any individual who knowingly possesses a firearm at a place that the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is within 1,000 feet of the grounds of a school is subject to a fine up to $1,000. A sheriff’s spokesman said the incident was resolved without action taken against the man when he voluntarily put away his rifle.

       Surrounded by cameras as deputies escorted the man away to record his information, a woman came up to criticize him.

       “All that attention you didn’t get in high school? Now you got all the attention you want,” she told him. “Isn’t that so cute?”

       The man — who would only give his name as “Maserati Mike” — returned to the courthouse without a rifle, bringing instead a sound system that blasted “Build a B*tch” by Bella Poarch and “Ride It” by DJ Regard, among other TikTok hits.

       The crowds were otherwise sparse compared to the dozens of people who demonstrated outside the courthouse Tuesday. Though most who showed up over the last two weeks pressed for a conviction, more Rittenhouse supporters have turned up since deliberations began.

       Rittenhouse, then a 17-year-old resident of north suburban Antioch, volunteered to patrol downtown Kenosha in August 2020 amid turmoil surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man left partially paralyzed after being shot by a white police officer during a domestic disturbance call days earlier. Prosecutors later declined to charge the officer with wrongdoing.

       Carrying an AR-15-style rifle that police say a friend illegally purchased for him, Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz during the third night of unrest in the city. Rittenhouse is charged with reckless homicide, intentional homicide and attempted intentional homicide related to his actions toward the men, respectively.

       Rittenhouse, who faces five felony charges for his actions that night, has pleaded not guilty and said he shot the men in self-defense.

       Armed protester demonstrates outside Kenosha courthouse as Kyle Rittenhouse jury resumes deliberations

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