Kyle Rittenhouse broke down as he recalled how Joseph Rosenbaum ‘ambushed him’ the night before he killed him.
As Judge Bruce Schroeder ordered a halt in proceedings during the dramatizing morning of witness testimony, his mother Wendy was there, watching from the Kenosha County Courthouse public gallery, and weeping.
Rittenhouse had taken the stand in his own defense to tell the court that Rosembaum threatened to kill him twice – once while swinging a heavy chain and the second time when he said he would ‘cut out your f***ing heart’ and ‘kill you N-word.’
The teenager recounted his experiences and stated that he tried to give medical help, carrying his gun but not seeking trouble. He was then left by himself, cut off from all the others and alone on August 25, 2020.
Kyle Rittenhouse broke down as he recalled how Joseph Rosenbaum ‘ambushed him’ the night that he killed him.
Rittenhouse had taken the stand in his own defense to tell the court that Rosembaum threatened to kill him twice – once while swinging a heavy chain and the second time when he said he would ‘cut out your f***ing heart’ and ‘kill you N-word’
After Rosenbaum pursued Rittenhouse through a parking lot, Rittenhouse shot Joseph Rosenbaum (left), with an AR-15-style semiautomatic gun. He then threw a bag at Rittenhouse just before midnight on August 25, 2020. Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber (right), a Silver Lake protester.
Mark Richards was his principal attorney. Richards asked him questions and he replied that he tried to park vehicles at one of the Car Source properties. Richards also stated that he and other vigilantes were present in Kenosha for protection during the civil unrest which followed Jacob Blake’s police shooting.
With his AR-15, his AR-15 and his emergency bag, he stated that he started to run towards Car Source Number Three to light the fires. He stopped occasionally to take a deep breath, then walked again.
“As long as I am walking, I hear somebody screaming, ‘Burn!’ And I answered with “Friendly!” It was friendly! It’s friendly! Friendly!
“I saw a light in the backseat of my car. [vehicle]I moved towards it. [it]And as I move forward, Joshua Ziminski appears to be walking towards me.
“I throw the fire extinguisher aside and walk back. I want to escape that mess and return North on Sheridan Road.
His emotion clearly rising Rittenhouse continued, ‘Once I take that step I look back over my shoulder and Mr Rosenbaum was no running from my right side and there were people right there…’
Rittenhouse started sobbing and taking deep breaths that Rittenhouse’s testimonies became difficult to understand.
Rittenhouse, who appeared to be calm and spoke clearly to the court said that he didn’t go downtown Kenosha “looking for trouble” and wouldn’t have shot Joseph Rosenbaum. He merely ‘chased after him’ and attempted to get his fire-arm.
He told the court that he was there to administer medical aid that evening and that during the evening he had bound a woman’s sprained ankle and tended to fellow vigilante Ryan Balch when he was affected by a chemical bomb – helping him with his breathing and to irrigate his eyes.
Rittenhouse has received some training in first aid and is certified as a lifeguard. At the University of Arizona, he is studying nursing.
Rittenhouse said that he went into Kenosha to clean graffiti from the Reuther Central high school’s side. It was during the trip with his friend Dominick Black and sister McKenzie that he said he met the owners of local business Car Source – which has three locations in the small town.
Anmol “Sam” and Sahil “Sal” Khindri owners of Car Source have each stated that they never asked anyone for protection, even though three defense witnesses and one state witness said otherwise.
Today Rittenhouse told the court that not only did the business owners give permission for them to be there and ask for protection that night – which he had offered earlier in the day – Sal drove him, his friend Dominick Black and former Car Source worker Nick Smith to the particular property.
Sal replied, “Sam and Sal thank us for helping them.” He then said that he was going to drive us down to the lake. He said, “Sam and Sal thanked us for coming out to help. And Sal replied: “Why don’t you guys hop in my car?” [another] Car Source lot.’
He said that he witnessed Sal give Nick Smith keys to the business – something which Khindri also denied under oath – and showed the men where ladders were kept so they could access the roof. Khindri denied that he did this.
“He told us where the power washers and hose connections were.” He also showed Nick Smith and Dominick Black the ladders to climb up onto the roof.
“I did not personally.” [use the ladders]However, the people who were there did.
Rittenhouse stood wide-eyed before the jury was called and prior to his testimony. He assured the judge that everything was fine, that his mind was still clear and that alcohol and drugs were not an issue.
Attorney Mark Richards confirmed that he had acted on counsel’s advice.
Kyle Rittenhouse names and points out people in the photograph taken August 25, 2020
He recalled the details of the night, and said that he went to give medical assistance, with his rifle, but not in search of trouble. However, he was left alone, and isolated from the other members of the group he had met earlier, on August 25, 2020.
Gaige Grosskreutz’s roommate from high school told the court that Grosskreutz’made everything up’ by claiming that Grosskreutz had ‘only regretted’ not shooting Kyle Rittenhouse on the night that he was killed.
Rittenhouse called Jacob Marshall as the first witness Wednesday morning. He made this startling statement under direct questioning by Corey Chirafisi.
Kyle Rittenhouse was the one who shot Gaige Grosskreutz, and his right side bicep was virtually completely torn off. Grosskreutz was Monday’s state star witness.
Marshall uploaded a Facebook picture of Grosskreutz and him in hospital on the same day Rittenhouse shot Marshall in the hand.
This post was later deleted by him. It was shown on large monitors in court.
They were pictured posing alongside Marshall’s posts. The only thing he regretted was not shooting the boy and waiting to get the gun out before emptying the whole mag into his mouth.
Marshall today said that Marshall lied 100 percent when he wrote the post.
“I made a poor remark,” he said. My friend was my advocate. He was not aware of what was happening.
Chirafisi said that he wasn’t standing up for Grosskreutz, but was ‘equating’ what he had to say.
Marshall insisted, ‘Those words never came out of my friend’s mouth…It was bad judgement.’
The post was also deleted by him, despite knowing that it could damage his friend’s credibility in the proceedings as a witness.
Grosskreutz, however, denied saying the words to the state when he was summoned as a witness last week.
Grosskreutz’s evidence was untrued when it was revealed that neither he nor his police statements, nor the two related lawsuits, mentioned that Grosskreutz was carrying a Glock.
Marshall shared a photo on Facebook that he took with Grosskreutz at the hospital, the day following his shooting in the hand.
Kyle Rittenhouse mumbled, “My God, my life may be over,” as he confessed that he’d’shot somebody’ the night of August 25, 2020.
Rittenhouse laughed and placed his hand on his nose when Judge Schroeder talked about the distance between Rittenhouses and his victims.
On Tuesday, the court heard how Kyle Rittenhouse stammered, ‘My God my life might be over,’ as he admitted that he had ‘shot someone’ on the night of August 25, 2020.
Rittenhouse was pale from sweating, shaking and stammering. He knocked on the front door of the local shop that he had, along with armed vigilantes, been guarding that night.
As the defense started their case, this was JoAnn Fiedler’s testimony Tuesday afternoon.
Fiedler was their second witness. The court heard her tell the story that Rittenhouse had fallen into’ her because she had allowed the Car Source business to open for her and the others that were there that night.
Strong testimony was heard as she stated that she was present because she was part of United Citizens for Patriotism which she had created in the aftermath of civil unrest.
She said, ‘I understood BLM and we were all with them and then they started destroying their own communities and there was a 71-year-old shop owner beaten down…well I wasn’t for that at all.’
She stated that she formed United Citizens for Patriotism in support of the emergency workers, police and “the country”.
She replied, “We simply stood beside our flags and told everyone that we were thinking about them.”
JoAnn Fiedler was second to be called by defense. The defense called JoAnn Fiedler as the second witness. She said Rittenhouse had “fallen into her” because she opened the doors to Car Source, which she and other were trying to protect that night.
Kyle Rittenhouse, a semi-automatic military rifle-manufacturer in the Military-style category, is charged with shooting three people last year using a semi-automatic weapon. Two of them were killed and two others were injured.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial jurors were presented with graphic images showing the injuries to the bodies of the men that he had shot on the evening of August 25, 2020. Huber’s remains are shown
After a day of horrifying images showing the corpses of Rittenhouse’s victims, the prosecution decided to rest its case on Tuesday.
After the jury was dismissed for lunch, and after Dr. Doug Kelly (forensic pathologist) had finished his testimony on Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum autopsies), Prosecutor Binger announced.
On the sixth day, images of Anthony Huber (the skateboarder who tried to grab Rittenhouse’s gun while he was lying on his stomach on the streets) were first shown.
Huber was hit in the chest with a single gunshot, Dr. Doug Kelly claimed. Dr. Doug Kelly said that the bullet was shot close to him and had caused devastating injuries to his heart.
According to Dr. Kelly, the bullet didn’t leave his body. It lodged in his right collar bone, having been introduced by his left nostril.
The stark pictures showed Huber as he lay after medics’ failed attempts to resuscitated him – the defibrillator pads still stuck to his chest and side, a plastic gel patch put in place in a futile bid to stem the fatal hemorrhaging that flooded his body cavity.
Next the state turned their attention to Joseph Rosenbaum – shot four times by Rittenhouse.
According to Dr. Kelly, two bullets that struck Rosenbaum were expelled and one did not.
On the sixth day, images of Anthony Huber were shown for the first time. Next the state turned their attention to Joseph Rosenbaum – shot four times by Rittenhouse
Rosenbaum had a bullet in his right buttock. The bullet had almost entered his pelvis from the spot where it had been.
He explained that from the stippling – the residue of soot and unburned gun-powder emitted by a gunshot – visible on Rosenbaum’s abdomen he estimated Rosenbaum’s distance from the muzzle of the weapon as approximately four feet.
Rosenbaum’s left hand was also struck, with his palm inflamed, index finger broken, and his middle finger exposed. According to the doctor, this injury was caused by a superficial cut to Rosenbaum’s left leg. He speculated that the bullet struck Rosenbaum’s palm and then bounced back to touch his thigh.
Rosenbaum sustained superficial injuries to his head. But the lethal shot was one that entered his chest, downward – right to left and back to front – and traveled down through his lung, diaphragm, liver and finally his right flank where the bullet was collected. Dr. Kelly stated that this was the fatality.
The jury was shown a variety of gritty photos showing Rosenbaum’s pale, lifeless body along with the various wounds he had sustained during that evening as the doctor spoke.
The brace was used to support his neck. A partial hold was given to his injured hand, allowing him to see the exit wound between thumb and index finger.
The entrance wound was also displayed to the right groin. It was surrounded with stippling, bloody and grimy.
The most alarming image was that of Rosenbaum on his head, back and stomach with bloody swirls and purple bruises visible around his midline.