On Friday, Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty on all five charges brought against him related to the fatal shooting of two men and wounding of another at an August 2020 Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. In the wake of the verdict, many are taking to social media to express their discontent and even outrage over Rittenhouse walking free – and even before the verdict came down, famed horror author Stephen King took to Twitter to weigh in.
On early Friday morning, King went to the platform to note Rittenhouse’s resemblance to Eric Harris, one of the two people behind one of the most notorious mass shootings in US history — the 1999 Columbine High School massacre.
Then, about 90 minutes after Rittenhouse was cleared of the charges, King took to Twitter to obliquely weigh in on the case, writing, “So…the white guy goes free. Is that the message?”
Quite a few of his fans agreed with King on the Rittenhouse/Harris resemblance, and quote-tweeted it throughout the day. “The resemblance is truly scary,” one said following the verdict, adding, “Wisconsin has freed a killer.”
Another went to the platform to give a personal remembrance of Columbine, noting, “Would agree and my daughter was lucky enough to be in one of the other Littleton High Schools at the time, but people she knew were killed.”
Others imagined, going down a bit of a wormhole, that Rittenhouse could have been a King character.
A number of celebrities have been chiming in on the case as the trial has gone on, including Marvel actor Dave Bautista saying quite literally, “F**k that kid!”
