Kyle Rittenhouse Confronted by Kent State University Protesters in Video

Kyle Rittenhouse was confronted by protesting students as he departed his speaking engagement at Kent State University (KSU) in Ohio on Tuesday, video footage shows.

Rittenhouse's talks—dubbed The Rittenhouse Recap—have been met with mixed reactions from students. Before arriving at Kent State University, he had faced protests at three universities—East Tennessee State University, the University of Memphis, and Western Kentucky University.

The 21-year-old came to public attention 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 injured then 26-year-old Paul Prediger, then known as Gaige Grosskreutz, at a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse said the three shootings, carried out with a semi-automatic AR-15-style firearm, were in self-defense. They took place at the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest held after Jacob Blake, a Black man, was left paralyzed from the waist down from being shot by a white police officer.

Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges in November 2021, including charges of first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and two charges of first-degree recklessly endangering safety. Rittenhouse later said he supported the BLM movement, adding that he was at the demonstration to "protect businesses and provide medical assistance."

Showing that he continues to face his fair share of detractors as he stepped out for his fourth university appearance, Rittenhouse took to X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday to share video footage of KSU students protesting his presence on their campus.

"Thank you guys, you've been a wonderful crowd," Rittenhouse said to the protesters as they yelled at him and one repeatedly called him a "murderer."

Rittenhouse climbed into the back of a waiting chauffeur-driven vehicle as the jeers continued. "Wonderful crowd. Very peaceful," Rittenhouse told the protesters.

Tying them, without sharing proof, to left-wing anti-fascist political movement Antifa, Rittenhouse captioned the seconds-long clip: "Thank you ANTIFA for the friendly good bye!"

Another video shared on X on Tuesday showed a sizable crowd of KSU students protesting Rittenhouse's presence. The placard-holding demonstrators, who stood behind barricades, were shown repeatedly chanting "murderer" outside the venue as they jeered at attendees exiting the building.

"Hey, hey, go home. Rittenhouse, it's time to go," the crowd was heard chanting as attendees continued to file out. One attendee was shown making a lewd gesture at the protesters, while several others filmed the crowd on their phones.

Rittenhouse was invited by Turning Point USA chapters at four colleges to give a talk about "individual rights, self-defense, and the importance of upholding the rule of law," Turning Point spokesperson Aubrey Laitsch told Inside Higher Ed in March. Laitsch said the talks are not an official tour, but come after the release of Rittenhouse's book, Acquitted, last year.

Turning Point USA is a nonprofit that advocates for conservative politics on high school, college, and university campuses.

Newsweek has contacted Rittenhouse via social media, his attorney via email, and representatives of Turning Point USA via email for comment.

A representative of the Ohio Student Association (OSA) told Newsweek that the movement against Rittenhouse's Kent State appearance was led by the college's local student organizations. These included OSA's Kent State chapter, Spanish and Latine Student Association, IGNITE, Students for Justice in Palestine, Black United Students, Sister Circle, and United Students Against Sweatshops.

Students at Kent State were especially outraged that someone with a history of gun violence is being allowed to speak on campus given the college's tragic history: the Ohio National Guard fired into a crowd of unarmed students protesting the Vietnam War on May 4, 1970, killing four and injuring nine more.

"Fifty-four years later, Kent State students have asked a young man responsible for the deaths of two unarmed protesters to speak on a campus where four unarmed protesters lost their lives," Leah Shepard, a reporter for the university's newspaper, wrote in an op-ed last month.

"This is a slap in the face of everything Kent State has done to memorialize that day. It desecrates the memories of those who gave their lives for peace and progress."

A petition calling on the university to cancel Rittenhouse's event had amassed more than 3,600 signatures ahead of his appearance.

Contacted for comment, a spokesperson for Kent State University directed Newsweek to a recent statement from university president Todd Diacon.

"Registered student organizations are free to invite speakers of their choosing," Diacon said in the statement. "Legally, as a public university, we are not able to constrain the speech of others, no matter how much we disagree with what any particular speaker is saying. This is not just a Kent State policy, it is the law of our country as clearly established in numerous judicial decisions."

Officials at other universities where Rittenhouse has spoken this year also cited the First Amendment and free speech laws to explain why they permitted Rittenhouse's talks to go ahead despite the protests.

When Rittenhouse visited the University of Memphis on March 20, the crowd cheered when he apparently left the stage abruptly after being questioned by a member of the audience about racist statements made by Turning Point USA's founder Charlie Kirk. Rittenhouse denied fleeing the event because of the heckling, telling Newsweek that he "stayed for the scheduled time."

"The event was scheduled for 30 minutes. I spoke for 30 minutes, and then my security team told the coordinator that we were leaving after the question, and we left," he said.

Rittenhouse also denied that the protesters had caused him to end the talk prematurely on social media, saying that the "far left's attempts to intimidate me won't stop me from speaking with college students and sharing my story."

Update 4/18/24, 11:30 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include information on the demonstration's organizers.