In under four minutes, Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded a medic Gaige Grosskreutz on Aug. 25, 2020. Rittenhouse traveled about 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois to attend the protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which was in response to the police shooting death of Jacob Blake.
Last week, more than a dozen videos captured by witnesses, police and more were played in court to recreate the night of the protest. Now on Monday, Grosskreutz took the stand to describe what it was like to watch Rittenhouse, who was 17 years-old at the time, reload his rifle in front of him.
Here’s more from Reuters:
Grosskreutz, a former paramedic who was armed with a pistol that night, said he followed Rittenhouse because he had heard gunshots and saw protesters chasing him. He thought he might need to provide medical aid.
“I thought that the defendant was an active shooter,” Grosskreutz told the jury.
During the pursuit by protesters Rittenhouse stumbled to the ground. The teen then shot Anthony Huber, 26, who had swung a skateboard at him.
Grosskreutz, who was approaching the teen, froze after Huber was shot, took a step back and put his hands in the air while still holding his pistol, according to video evidence and a criminal complaint filed days after the shootings last year.
Grosskreutz said on Monday that while he had his hands in the air he believed Rittenhouse had “re-racked” his rifle, effectively loading another round into the chamber so the gun was ready to fire. Grosskreutz said he interpreted that to mean the “defendant wasn’t accepting my surrender.”
“At that moment I felt that I had to do something to try and prevent myself from being killed or shot,” Grosskreutz said, adding that while he was holding his pistol, he never intended to use it.
Ironically, Rittenhouse was caught on video telling protestors that he was there to “help people” and provide medical aid. According to CNN, a video played in court last Wednesday with Rittenhouse saying on camera that he is a certified EMT, there to protect a business and provide assistance with a med kit. Rittenhouse was with several other armed men that he claimed were there to protect him.
Along with the three men Rittenhouse shot, who the prosecutors aren’t allowed to call “victims,” Rittenhouse also fired shots at another unarmed and unnamed individual, CNN reports.
It’s just interesting that Rittenhouse showed up to help people and ended up harming more than he helped.
“We appreciate you guys, we really do,” one officer was caught on tape saying about Rittenhouse and the men he was with from CNN.
Doesn’t it seem strange that the police supported a white teenager showing up to a protest supporting a Black police brutality victim, wielding a rifle with harmless bystanders around? But I guess the point of the defense in this trial is to show that the men Rittenhouse shot weren’t so harmless at all.
Last week, according to Reuters, several witnesses supported the claim that the teenager was acting in self defense. An attorney for Rittenhouse, Mark Richards, says that a slowed down video and self-defense expert will also show that Grosskreutz was a threat too.