Photo Courtesy of Oxygen.com
Kyle Rittenhouse, a now 18-year-old from Illinois, killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and injured Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-15 during a protest in response to the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin last summer.
The trial started on Tuesday, Nov. 2. Rittenhouse testified that he shot the people in “self-defense” and that he “feared for his life” according to tmj4 news.com’s live coverage on day 1 of the trial. Dominick Black, Kyle Rittenhouse’s friend, was called to the witness stand as he was the one to give Rittenhouse the firearm. He did this because Kyle was only 17 years old at the time. Dominick Black explained that the reason as to why they both were armed was that they were protecting local businesses.
“Oh, he shot him! He shot him, man. He shot him, man, He laid him out,” is the statement made by the person capturing the video of Kyle Rittenhouse killing Joseph Rosenbaum, according to a PBS. This same clip was shown in court on the second day of the trial and Rittenhouse showed no emotion watching himself walk down the street with protesters screaming. Since Kyle Rittenhouse is 18 years old, he could face up to life in prison. Prosecutors described Rittenhouse as an instigator of the killings that happened that night, but his lawyer argued that he acted in self-defense in response to Joseph Rosenbaum trying to grab his gun as people surrounded Rittenhouse and hit him with a skateboard.
A detective from Kenosha was called to the witness stand to describe the type of injures Rittenhouse suffered, Detective Ben Antaramian described the injuries as “all seemingly minor: a half-inch scratch above his eyebrow, a small cut inside his lower lip, a 2-inch scratch below his collarbone, a 2-inch scratch on his forearm, a scratch on his back, and two bumps the size of pennies on his head. He continued to be questioned about the altercation between Rittenhouse and Rosenbaum. It was said that Joseph Rosenbaum was in fact not armed with any sort of weapon. He also further explained that as Rittenhouse was being chased by Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse shouted out “Friendly! Friendly! Friendly!” Other video footage that was played in court showed that Kyle Rittenhouse was only there to “protect property and provide medical care to anyone who was hurt,” according to PBS
After killing Joseph Rosenbaum, Kyle Rittenhouse went on to kill 26-year-old Anthony Huber, from Silver Lake, Wisconsin, and injuring 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz from West Allis, Wisconsin.
On Sunday, Nov.14, live coverage from abc7chicago.com, showed Kyle Rittenhouse’s lawyer saying, “Other people in this community have shot someone seven times, and it has been found to be okay. My client did it four times in three-quarters of a second to protect his life from Mr. Rittenhouse.”
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger explained in his closing argument that, “when the defendant provokes the incident, he loses the right to self-defense. You cannot claim self-defense against a danger you create. The defendant decided to pull the trigger on his AR-15 four times, that was his decision, and he is responsible for every bullet that comes out of that gun.”
As of Nov. 17, the jury is on their second day of deliberations deciding whether Kyle Rittenhouse will be charged the maximum sentence or a lighter sentence.
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