Samaria Rice—whose son Tamir was shot and killed by a Cleveland police officer in 2014 over a toy gun—said the U.S. needs to be “overthrown” following the verdict of Kyle Rittenhouse.
Rice caught up with TMZ to share her thoughts on the trial, where the white gunman—who was 17 at the time—was charged and eventually found not guilty of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and first-degree recklessly endangering safety, after he shot and killed two unarmed men and shot an armed man during a 2020 protest in Kenosha, Washington.
“I’m very annoyed about how a minor, a white little boy, is not in jail for the murder of other people, and that’s just not right,” Rice said. “That’s not right. And his mother should go to jail, too. Because why would you give him a gun if he’s a minor? That’s just not how you’re supposed to raise your children in this country. You’re not supposed to just give him a gun to go to a protest, right? So you knew he was going to a protest—what did you think he was going to do?”
Rice elaborated, sharing that Rittenhouse wasn’t helping out police, but rather “killed innocent people,” which she said he should be in jail for.
“I’m really confused, but I also understand that it was designed this way and, at this point, we are at the mercy of God. … At the end of the day, this country needs to be overthrown,” Rice said. “This is pitiful, and where in this country have we seen someone pick their own jury? When I seen that, I was like, ‘Is we still on planet earth?’ We have never seen it in a judicial system, even with all the mass murderers and everything that has happened in this country for decades and decades.”
Rice’s concerns echo those of many other Americans who saw Rittenhouse randomly select his own jury from a metal raffle drum after it was spun by a clerk. The trial also saw Judge Bruce Shroeder rule out the use of the word “victims” when referring to the two men Rittenhouse killed and the one he injured—Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz—but accepting the words “rioters” and “looters.”
