Kyle Rittenhouse selfie with Texas police officer sparks outrage on department's Facebook page

A photo of a Thrall police officer posing with Kyle Rittenhouse that was posted to the department’s official Facebook account has begun circulating on social media, sparking outrage. The photograph, posted on Thursday, shows Rittenhouse grinning next to an unnamed Thrall officer in front of a vehicle. “Make those stops, you never know who you might meet,” the post reads. “Today it was Kyle Rittenhouse, welcome to Texas.” About six hours later, the post was edited by the Central Texas police department after intense backlash.

The edited post read: “I must have missed something, I believe that this young man was arrested, charged, indicted and then found not guilty by a jury of his peers. Is this not how our country works anymore? The hate in these comments is terrible, if you have information that is contrary to that I would honestly love to hear it.” In 2020 at the age of 17, Rittenhouse drove from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in response to protests for the shooting of a Black man by a white officer. Rittenhouse had said he wanted to help law enforcement protect property amid civil unrest. He was accused of fatally shooting two men and injuring another with his rifle. He was acquitted last year of multiple felony charges during his high-profile trial in which he argued he acted in self-defense. Now 19-years-old, Rittenhouse recently made headlines in Texas after he said he was attending Texas A&M University. A school spokesperson later said Rittenhouse had not been accepted at the university. Rittenhouse later tweeted that he was moving to Texas this year to attend Blinn College in Brenham, a two-year institution that has a strong transfer rate to A&M, according to the Houston Chronicle. Acceptance, however, is not guaranteed. The Thrall Police Department’s Facebook post received nearly 1,800 comments.