Kenosha, Wisconsin (AP)-Kyle Rittenhouse testified on Wednesday that on a chaotic night of protests in Kenosha, he killed two men with a rifle and wounded three others. One of them, he said: "I did nothing wrong. I defend myself."
In a high-stakes gambling, the 18-year-old appeared in court in his murder trial and recounted what happened on the street in the summer of 2020 when he cried so hard that the judge called him rest.
In the video and most of the statements confirmed by the prosecutor’s own witnesses, Rittenhouse said that the first man forced him to a corner and put his hand on the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle, while the second man used a skateboard to hit him. He, the third person uses a gun of his own.
His testimony for almost a whole day was interrupted by angry exchanges, and his lawyers demanded a trial for what they believed the chief prosecutor asked him to be out of scope.
Although the judge was obviously angry with the prosecutor, he did not immediately rule on the request. Later that day, he instructed the jury to look forward to the conclusion of the case early next week.
The 18-year-old Rittenhouse is on trial for shooting after a white Kenosha police officer wounded black Jacob Black during the unrest that broke out in Kenosha. He can be imprisoned for life.
At that time, the 17-year-old Rittenhouse went to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic weapon and a medical kit. The former young police student said that this was to protect property after the mob set fire and ransacked the enterprise a few nights ago.
The case left Americans with disagreements over whether Rittenhouse opposes lawless patriots or voluntary police officers.
When he started crying in the stands and seemed unable to speak, his mother Wendy Rittenhouse sat on the bench across from the courtroom, sobbing loudly. Someone put his arm around her. After the judge adjourned the meeting, the jurors walked past Rittenhouse and watched him continue to cry.
After the eruption in the morning, he remained basically calm for the rest of the day, although his voice seemed to break sometimes when under severe cross-examination.
Prosecutor Thomas Binger worked at Rittenhouse throughout the afternoon during the interrogation period, to show him about every shooting incident. Rittenhouse kept fighting back, saying that he had no choice but to fire.
Rittenhouse said he "does not want to shoot" Joseph Rosenbaum, the first person to fall that night, but he said Rosenbaum was chasing him and threatened to kill him sooner.
"If I asked Mr. Rosenbaum to take my gun from me, he would use it to kill me," he said, "and it might kill more people."
But Rittenhouse also admitted that his belt was in place and his hands were on the weapon. Binger hinted that Rosenbaum might have been trying to repel the rifle.
The prosecutor tried to overturn the state's argument that Rittenhouse caused a dangerous situation in the first place.
"You understand that when you point AR-15 at someone, it might make them think you are going to kill them, right?" Binger asked.
Rittenhouse testified that after Huber hit the protester Anthony Huber in the neck with a skateboard and grabbed his gun, he shot and killed the protester Anthony Huber. He then wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, saying that the protesters "pointed a pistol to my head" and pounced on him.
Rittenhouse’s decision to testify carries risks, including the possibility of intense cross-examination. Given that some of the prosecution’s witnesses have supported his self-defense claims, some legal experts have expressed doubts about the need for him to appear in court.
Most of Wednesday’s testimony focused on Rosenbaum’s shooting, which triggered the bloodshed that followed.
Rittenhouse said that earlier that night, Rosenbaum held a chain and threatened his life twice. Rittenhouse apologized to the court for his words and quoted Rosenbaum as saying: "I want to dig out your (expletive) heart!"
Later that night, Rittenhouse said that when he walked towards the car dealer’s parking lot with a fire extinguisher, he heard someone screaming: "Burning in hell!" He said that he replied: "Friendly, friendly, friendly!"
He said Rosenbaum ran towards him from one side, and another protester with a gun stood in front of him, and he was driven to a desperate situation. He said he started to flee, and he heard a protester tell Rosenbaum, "Catch him, kill him!"
Rittenhouse said he heard a gunshot from behind him, and when he turned around, Rosenbaum was rushing towards him with open arms. "I remember he put his hand on the barrel of my gun," Rittenhouse said.
He said that was when he shot.
He also said that he thought the thing Rosenbaum threw during the hunt-a plastic medical bag-was the chain he had seen before.
When his lawyer asked him why he didn't continue to flee Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse said, "I don't have room to continue."
During cross-examination, Bingcu asked Rittenhouse whether it was appropriate to use lethal force to protect property, and questioned the defendant's silence after the arrest.
At that time, the jury was taken out of the room, and itinerant judge Bruce Schroeder loudly and angrily accused Bingge of improper questioning and tried to provide testimony that the judge had indicated earlier that he was inclined to ban-the video produced approximately Fifteen days before the shooting, Rittenhouse watched the man leave the CVS pharmacy and heard comments that he wanted him to have his rifle so he could shoot them because he thought they were shoplifters.
Rittenhouse's lawyer Corey Chirafisi almost stated that the prosecutors deliberately tried to cause a mistrial because the case was “not going well” for them and they wanted to start all over again. The defense requested a prejudiced trial, which means that if approved, Rittenhouse cannot be retrial.
When Bingge said that he had always acted in good faith, the judge replied: "I don't believe it."
When he first appeared in court, his lawyer asked Rittenhouse if he had come to Kenosha for trouble, and he answered no.
He testified that on the day before the shooting, he saw violent videos in downtown Kenosha, including throwing bricks on the head of police officers and burning cars at car dealers.
Rittenhouse said that the owner of Car Source was "happy that we were there" that night.
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