Outraged protesters at the University of Memphis disrupted a Turning Point USA (TPUSA) event featuring Kyle Rittenhouse on Wednesday night.
TPUSA’s college chapter at the university invited Rittenhouse to speak about the Second Amendment and self-defense, but the event spiraled into chaos when some students disrupted parts of Rittenhouse’s Q&A and chased attendees leaving the campus, video captured at the event shows.
According to TPUSA, the university took “unprecedented actions to undermine our event,” after previous ticket holders were alerted before the event that their seats were no longer reserved and that they would have to rebook.
“Seizing control of seating arrangements and the ticketing system – on the day of the event – has never happened in our many years of campus organizing,” TPUSA spokesperson Andrew Kolvet said in a statement. “This abrupt change will result in hundreds of disappointed students whose tickets will no longer grant them entrance into the venue.”
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Demonstrators protest against the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Nov. 19, 2021. (REUTERS/David Dee Delgado)
TPUSA said that “despite being promised control of 50 seats,” the organizers were restricted to only a single row of eight seats.
Kolvet said the organization “gathered credible information” that school administrators leaked the new ticketing information to protesters in order to fill up seats to stage a walk-out.
“There is no way these groups could have known the new ticketing timing and protocol without school administrators leaking that information,” Kolvet said.
Several social media posts on X show that in the days leading up to the event, some students were urging others to email the school administrators to get them to cancel Rittenhouse’s appearance.
“A murderer who wants to speak on the ‘lies’ of BLM should not be welcome on our campus!” one post read.
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Kyle Rittenhouse (Sean Krajacic – Pool/Getty Images)
According to several videos uploaded to X just after 9 p.m., when the event concluded, protesters began chasing attendees and booing them while state troopers escorted them off campus.
“No justice, no peace,” protesters can be heard chanting in one video.
In another clip, protesters follow attendees to their cars in one of the university’s parking garages, yelling obscenities and blocking the exit. State troopers can be seen trying to control the crowds.
In a video uploaded to X just after 1 a.m. on Thursday, Rittenhouse said it was a “great event,” with “interesting people to say the least.” He also said he was not booed off stage, because there was a “hard cut off” time for the conclusion of the event at 9 p.m.
The University of Memphis did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Rittenhouse was found not guilty on five charges after he fatally shot two people and injured a third person during the second night of civil unrest in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. His attorneys argued that the then-17-year-old was acting in self-defense after being attacked from behind when he shot Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, as well as deceased Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26 in the riots following the police shooting of a 29-year-old Black man, Jacob Blake.
Both of the deceased had previous criminal records, including alleged domestic abuse, child molestation and disorderly conduct.
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A man on a bike rides past a city truck on fire outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests following the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, 2020. (Left: Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via USA TODAY via REUTERS Right: Sean Krajacic/Pool via REUTERS)
Fox News’ Michael Ruiz and Paul Best contributed to this report.
