KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Kyle Rittenhouse told jurors at his murder trial that he tried to get away from his pursuers the night he shot three men during street unrest in Kenosha, saying he never wanted to kill anyone: “I didn’t do anything wrong. I defended myself.”
The 18-year-old spent most of Wednesday giving his account of what happened in just a few frenzied minutes on Aug. 25, 2020, sobbing so hard at one point that the judge called a recess.
In an account largely corroborated by video and the prosecution’s own witnesses, Rittenhouse said that the first man cornered him and put his hand on the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle, the second man hit him with a skateboard, and the third man came at him with a gun of his own.
Rittenhouse fatally shot the first two men and wounded the third.
His nearly daylong testimony was interrupted by an angry exchange in which his lawyers demanded a mistrial over what they argued were out-of-bounds questions asked of him by the chief prosecutor.
The judge, though plainly mad at the prosecutor, did not immediately rule on the request. And later in the day, he instructed the jury to expect closing arguments early next week.
Rittenhouse is on trial over the shootings he committed during unrest that erupted in Kenosha over the wounding of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer. He could get life in prison on the charges.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, went to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic weapon and a medic bag in what the former police and fire youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters had set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.
The case has divided Americans over whether Rittenhouse was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.
As he began crying on the stand and appeared unable to speak, his mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, seated on a bench across the courtroom, sobbed loudly. Someone put an arm around her. After the judge called a recess, jurors walked by Rittenhouse and looked on as he continued to cry.
After the morning outburst, he was largely composed the rest of the day, though his voice seemed to break at times as he came under tough cross-examination.
Prosecutor Thomas Binger went hard at Rittenhouse all afternoon during cross-examination, walking him through each of the shootings. Rittenhouse continually pushed back, saying he had no choice but to fire.
Rittenhouse said he “didn’t want to have to shoot” Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man to fall that night, but he said Rosenbaum was chasing him and had threatened to kill him earlier.
“If I would have let Mr. Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it,” he said, “and probably killed more people.”
Tucker Carlson reacts to the ‘intentional perversion of justice’ from the prosecution.
But Rittenhouse also acknowledged that the strap holding his gun was in place and that he had both hands on the weapon. And Binger suggested that Rosenbaum might have been trying to bat the rifle away.
The prosecutor sought to drive home the state’s contention that Rittenhouse created the dangerous situation in the first place.
“You understand that when you point your AR-15 at someone, it may make them feel like you’re going to kill them, correct?” Binger asked.
Rittenhouse testified that he then shot and killed protester Anthony Huber after Huber struck him in the neck with his skateboard and grabbed his gun. Then he wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, saying the protester had lunged at him “with his pistol pointed directly at my head.”
Much of the testimony Wednesday was centered on the shooting of Rosenbaum, since that set in motion the bloodshed that followed.
Rittenhouse said that earlier that night, Rosenbaum was holding a chain and twice threatened his life. Apologizing to the court for his language, Rittenhouse quoted Rosenbaum as saying: “I’m going to cut your (expletive) hearts out!”
Later that night, Rittenhouse said, he was walking toward a car dealer’s lot with a fire extinguisher to put out a blaze when he heard somebody scream, “Burn in hell!” He said he responded by saying, “Friendly, friendly, friendly!”
He said Rosenbaum was running at him from one side and another protester with a gun was in front of him, and he was cornered. He said he began to run, and he heard a protester tell Rosenbaum, “Get him and kill him!”
Rittenhouse said he heard a gunshot directly behind him, and as he turned around, Rosenbaum was coming at him with his arms out in front. “I remember his hand on the barrel of my gun,” Rittenhouse said.
That was when he fired, he said.
Asked by his lawyer why he didn’t keep running away from Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse said: “There was no space for me to continue to run to.”
During cross-examination, Binger asked Rittenhouse about whether it was appropriate to use deadly force to protect property, and also posed questions about the defendant’s silence after his arrest.
At that, the jury was ushered out of the room, and Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder loudly and angrily accused Binger of pursuing an improper line of questioning and trying to introduce testimony that the judge earlier said he was inclined to prohibit — video made some 15 days before the shootings, in which Rittenhouse watches men leave a CVS Pharmacy and is heard commenting that he wished he had his rifle so he could shoot them because he thought they were shoplifters.
Rittenhouse lawyer Corey Chirafisi all but suggested prosecutors were deliberately trying to cause a mistrial because the case is “going badly” for them and they want a do-over. The defense asked for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning that if one is granted, Rittenhouse cannot be retried.
When Binger said he had been acting in good faith, the judge replied: “I don’t believe that.”
As he first took the stand, Rittenhouse was asked by his attorney whether he came to Kenosha looking for trouble, and he responded no.
He testified that he saw videos of violence in downtown Kenosha on the day before the shootings, including a brick being thrown at a police officer’s head and cars burning in a Car Source dealership lot.
Rittenhouse said the Car Source owner “was happy we were there” that night.
___
Bauer reported from Madison, Wisconsin; Foody from Chicago. Associated Press writer Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan.
___
Find AP’s full coverage on the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse at: https://apnews.com/hub/kyle-rittenhouse
© 2021 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
—-
This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
There shouldn’t even be a trial. This is the most recent miscarriage of justice in a string of cases we have had this year. This is part of an ongoing attempt to derail the legal system and muddy the lines as to what is and what is not justice.
Certain occurrences that fit into a Media narrative and Liberal agenda are turned into high-profile cases which are then propagandized and manipulated to brainwash the public that someone innocent is an ominous villain who has run afoul of the law and societal parameters and needs to be made an example of.
The Mainstream Media and Social Media have appointed themselves as judge, jury, and executioner feeding off of mob hysteria. What results is innocent lives are ruined—or at least battered—and the guilty are idolized. This trend needs to be corrected.
I hope to god.. This trial WAKES UP THE FOLK IN wisconsin, to vote out all these commies in office..!
The only problem here is that there were’t 1000 more armed patriots firing into the mob of rioters. Give just one easy lesson on how to stop a riot, and watch peace return to our streets.
AND the same thing, needs to happen along our southern border.. JUST WATCH how swiftly illegal invasion of our nation stops, when a few hundred bodies start hitting the floor.
This was a public show trial, someone has to be the scapegoat to divert attention away from the greater picture, the rioting, the looting, the arson, no one was charged with any of those crimes. One person wascharged for defending the rights and property of others being terrorized by the mob for shooting someone in defense of his own life. The prosecutor is running for some office i’ve heard and this trial was to make him appear tough on crime. I avoided watching any of the trial but happened on the exchange between the judge and the prosecutor, this was better than Perry Mason, the judge was having none of his antics and yet he kept trying. This kind of behavior gives lawyers a bad reputation, he wasn’t out for justice, he was out ti make a reputation for himself at the expense of the innocent; disbarment sounds like a good solution!
That NOT ONE Of these rioters have even been CHARGED with a crime, let alone CONVICTED of rioting, arson, looting or the like, is TRULY SICKENING.
Unfortunately Kyle has found himself in a sticky situation. The thing that I saw from the news to date, shows that he was in full control of his faculties and only responded to overt attacks against him. He protected himself, his weapon, which in turned more than likely save eevn more lives. This young man is what more young people should try and emulate in how he handled himself in the face of anarchy.
MIS-TRIAL!!!!!!! PERIOD!!!!!!
ONLY IF ITS discharged WITH prejudice.. SO no new charges can be filed.
I watched this trial all day yesterday. I couldn’t believe I did but it was fascinating. This young man is amazing. He had the presence of a much older man. He cried at one point but it was not crocodile tears. It was obvious he would rather not have had to kill these men but it was also obvious from his later answers that he feared for his life, pure and simple.
The prosecutor is a dishonest snake and Rittenhouse is very fortunate to have an honest judge. I believe I read that the judge is a Democrat, surely not. I need to look that up. The prosecution tried to say that a skateboard is not a lethal weapon when using it to hit someone in the head. The prosecution does not honor the right to self defense at all.
The DA brought the charges within 48 hours. They didn’t have time to investigate. They hurried for political reasons and they over charged.
The prosecutor tried to float the idea that Kyle waited too long to shoot the guy holding the pistol. If he didn’t shoot him when he was further away then he wasn’t in fear of his life. What the wait actually showed was the kid’s presence of mind in waiting that long as could giving the rioter time to back away.
Bottom line, if you are so stupid that you go after someone carrying a rifle with a skateboard or even a pistol, you are too stupid to live.
I think he should get off but the biggest question in my mind is the jury. There is a great chance for a biased jury in Kenosha, IMO.
where are the trials of the antifa thugs? or blm thugs? or ms13 gangsters?
THIS DA won’t ever prosecute those folks THEY ARE THE ARMY of the DNC.
I truly hope when he is found innocent that he secures a lawyer to go after all the news media that totally lie about him and his actions !
Exactly. HE needs to sue them for BOTH slander, and Defamation of character.
Why stop at the news (propaganda) media? Wet depends senile Joe even said Kyle was a Klansman. Should also sue that stupid pile of raw sewage. The only bad thing is that senile manure bag has so many lawsuits against him that Kyle’s case wouldn’t come up for another 2 years.