Potential jurors in Kyle Rittenhouse's trial were asked their opinions on AR-15 rifles, and some said they were afraid they'd face threats if chosen to serve

• A jury of 11 women and nine men, with eight alternates, was selected for the Kyle Rittenhouse trial.
• Rittenhouse is accused of killing two men and injuring another during unrest in Wisconsin last year.

A jury of 11 women and nine men was selected to serve in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial on Monday, in a process that lasted a single day.

The jury is overwhelmingly white, with one person of color among the group of 20, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. The jury is expected to be whittled down to 12 jurors for final deliberations.

Rittenhouse was 17 years old in August 2020 when he shot and killed two men and injured another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse said he traveled to Kenosha to protect businesses from damage by the demonstrators, and his defense team may argue that he acted in self-defense. Opening statements in the case begin on Monday.

Many of the questions that Rittenhouse's attorney, Corey Chirafisi, posed to jurors on Monday centered on their knowledge of guns and their opinions on semiautomatic weapons.

Many in the pool of prospective jurors said they owned guns or were avid hunters. One woman said she acquired a weapon during the unrest last year in order to protect herself.

Chirafisi also asked whether the potential jurors had strongly held opinions about AR-15s, the style of rifle that Rittenhouse used in the shooting.

AR-15-style rifles are semiautomatic, and there has been debate over whether they should be legal in the US, thanks to their use in mass-shooting events.

One woman was dismissed from the jury when she said that she didn't think anyone should be allowed to own an AR-15. She said her opinion was so strong that it could make her prejudiced against Rittenhouse.

"I don't feel a weapon like that should belong to the general public," she said.

A couple of potential jurors also expressed worries about how deciding the case would affect their lives.

"Either way this goes, half the country is upset with you," said one juror, who was later selected to serve. "It's just scary. I don't want people to have my name. I don't want to be seen on TV."

She added that she took someone else's car to the courthouse out of fear that she might later be identified. Another woman said she feared the same thing and had taken a Lyft instead of driving herself to the court.