“I remember his hand on the barrel of my gun,” Rittenhouse said. 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. He said he began to run, and he heard a protester tell Rosenbaum, “Get him and kill him!” 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. 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!” Apologizing to the court for his language, Rittenhouse quoted Rosenbaum as saying: “I’m going to cut your (expletive) hearts out!” Rittenhouse said that earlier that night, Rosenbaum was holding a chain and twice threatened his life. Much of the testimony Wednesday was centered on the shooting of Rosenbaum, since that set in motion that bloodshed that followed.
And some legal experts expressed doubt about the need to put him on the stand, given that some of the prosecution’s own witnesses have already bolstered his claim of self-defense. Rittenhouse’s decision to testify carried risks, including the possibility of fierce cross-examination. Then he wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, saying the protester had lunged at him “with his pistol pointed directly at my head.” 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. “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. The prosecutor sought to drive home the state’s contention that Rittenhouse created the dangerous situation in the first place. And Binger suggested that Rosenbaum might have been trying to bat the rifle away. Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it,” he said, “and probably killed more people.”īut Rittenhouse also acknowledged that the strap holding his gun was in place and that he had both hands on the weapon. 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. Rittenhouse continually pushed back, saying he had no choice but to fire. Prosecutor Thomas Binger went hard at Rittenhouse all afternoon during cross-examination, walking him through each of the shootings. After the judge called a recess, jurors walked by Rittenhouse and looked on as he continued to cry.Īfter 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. The case has divided Americans over whether Rittenhouse was a patriot taking a stand against lawlessness or a vigilante.Īs he began crying on the stand and appeared unable to speak, his mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, seated on a bench across the courtroom, sobbed loudly. 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 youth cadet said was an effort to protect property after rioters had set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights. He could get life in prison on the charges.
DEFENDU MOVES TRIAL
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. And later in the day, he instructed the jury to expect closing arguments early next week.
The judge, though plainly mad at the prosecutor, did not immediately rule on the request.
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