4 years after Kyle Rittenhouse shooting, Wisconsin city reflects on unity and moving on

(KENOSHA, Wis.) — Kenosha, Wisconsin, is a picturesque community on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is known for its boats, fresh corn at the farmer’s market and the country’s oldest velodrome. However, everything changed when Kenosha burst into the national spotlight in 2020.

Jacob Blake, 29, a father of three, was shot seven times by a local police officer and left paralyzed from the waist down. Following the August 2020 police shooting of Blake, protests, riots, and civil unrest took place in Kenosha and across the United States as part of the Black Lives Matter movement and other groups protesting racial injustice.

Amid looting and riots in Kenosha, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse arrived at the scene armed, stating he was there to protect a car dealership from rioters. As the situation escalated, Rittenhouse shot three men, two of whom died.

Rittenhouse was charged with two felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. A charge of violating a curfew that was imposed during the protests in Kenosha was later dropped.

Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty to the charges and, during trial testimony, said he shot all three men with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in self-defense.

Rittenhouse was found not guilty. Embraced by gun rights supporters, he became a symbol of the Second Amendment and gained popularity within the Republican Party.

Now, in the aftermath of an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, all eyes are on the state of Wisconsin, a battleground state where Trump recently visited for the Republican National Convention.

Residents of Kenosha are experiencing similar fears they felt four years ago, according to community activist Molly Gray-Moores.

“Oh, my God, are we going backward instead of moving forward?” Gray-Moores said. “We need our city and our nation to come to one place where we all come together. We can’t keep tearing up our city and our nation.”

Gray-Moore’s sentiments also resonate with Kenosha’s new police chief, Patrick Patton, who agrees. Patton was policing a local parade when news broke of the assassination attempt on Trump.

“Whatever side of the fence you fall on, an attack on an elected official or a former sitting president or a candidate for that matter is kind of an attack on our democracy,” Patton said. “The world kind of looks to America as the leaders in that field. So this sets us back. We can’t have it. It’s un-American.”

In rural Kenosha, it’s Trump country, and there has been a wake-up call. Some locals are concerned that people are resorting to violence, using guns instead of voting to get their message across.

“They might not always agree with us, but they have their opinions, we have our opinions,” Diane Biehn, a resident of rural Kenosha, said. “Let’s not take it to that level of violence.”

On the other side of town, a local businessman and barber is trying to increase community participation by holding community engagement sessions in his shop. Topics include the direction of our country and who will lead it.

Alvin Owens operates the Regimen Barber Collective and hopes to engage individuals from diverse backgrounds to advocate for voting and the right to vote.

ABC News spoke with a participant who said they benefited from these conversations and put their apathy toward the current presidential candidates aside.

“I got four children and they’re all boys, and I want them to be kings,” Kyle Smith said. “I want them to be men in the truest sense that they can. And I can’t teach that if I don’t embody it and I may not want to vote, but I got to, man. So, hopefully, I vote for the right person. We’ll see.”

Another participant encourages candidates to appreciate America’s diversity.

“I think that’s really important to go outside of your box and listen to other people and learn who they are, and embrace our diversity, because that’s what America is,” Jami Jastrom said.

As the nation enters the final months of this tumultuous election cycle, both presidential candidates are calling for less angry rhetoric and more unity, a sentiment shared by Kenoshans.

“Let’s work together,” Gray-Moores said. “Everybody has a voice, use it. You don’t have to use anger, you don’t have to use weapons. None of that, that’s not what we’re about.”