KENOSHA, WISC. — A Kenosha County jury appeared riveted Wednesday as prosecutors played a series of videos showing Kyle Rittenhouse shooting three men amid chaotic protests.
It marked the first time the panel had seen the videos pieced together to form a cohesive narrative of how the events unfolded in August 2020. Most jurors stopped taking notes, as they leaned toward the screens to watch recordings that have been played millions of times around the world.
A solemn Rittenhouse also appeared to being paying close attention to the videos, taking notes and whispering to his lawyers while the sound of his gunshots rang out in the courtroom. He purposefully looked away, however, whenever images appeared on the screen of the men he shot injured and, in one case, dying.
Rittenhouse, a then 17-year-old from north suburban Antioch, crossed state lines and volunteered to patrol downtown Kenosha amid turmoil surrounding the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Carrying an AR-15-style rifle that police say a friend illegally purchased for him, Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and injured a third.
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty, arguing he killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in self-defense.
With Kenosha Police Det. Martin Howard on the witness stand, prosecutors walked jurors through roughly a half-dozen videos taken that night. They started with interviews Rittenhouse gave to journalists before the shootings, in which he boasted about being a medic and unknowingly foreshadowed his criminal defense.
“People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business,” Rittenhouse said as he stood in front of a used car lot in one clip. “And part of my job also is to protect people. If someone is hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle; I’ve gotta protect myself obviously.”
Wearing blue plastic gloves and a homemade first-aid kit around his waist, the video shows Rittenhouse walking through Kenosha streets calling out for anyone who needs a medic. He provided aid to a few people that night, according to earlier testimony, but Rittenhouse — a lifeguard who had not yet finished high school — is not a trained emergency medical technician.
Earlier in the day, a social media influencer who recorded Rittenhouse before the shootings testified about his observations that night. Koerri Washington said he remembered thinking an armed Rittenhouse looked “young” and “nervous” as he chain smoked in a gas station parking lot. He didn’t single him out as problematic, however.
“It wasn’t like I thought he was going to go and mow a bunch of people down,” Washington said.
Jurors saw a video, taken later in the evening, in which four shots rang out after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse through the car lot. Shortly before the chase, Rittenhouse could be heard yelling, “friendly! friendly” to indicate he was not looking for a conflict.
The defense has emphasized that Rosenbaum had been menacing people with a chain that night, but Howard testified that Rosenbaum threw a plastic bag at Rittenhouse before the shooting and was not carrying a weapon.
“I can only see a plastic bag,” he said.
Prosecutors played a video of bystanders trying to help Rosenbaum after being shot. They scream about trying to put pressure on the wounds, while a dying Rosenbaum takes loud, rattling breaths.
“Stay with me!” one man yells.
As the bloody images played on screens around the courtroom, Rittenhouse turned his head so he could not see any of them. He only looked at the monitors again when he heard the recording stop.
After shooting Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse ran up one of Kenosha’s main streets until he tripped and fell. Once on the ground, a man tried to kick him but missed. Rittenhouse fired at him in return and missed him.
Huber then hit Rittenhouse with his skateboard, and the teen fired a fatal shot into his chest. An armed Grosskreutz took a step toward Rittenhouse and was shot in the arm.
The jurors later watched video of Grosskreutz, a trained medic, instruct a bystander on how to tie a tourniquet around his arm to stop the massive bleeding.
Rittenhouse stood up after firing his eighth shot and walked toward nearby police cars with his arms raised. The police ignored him and continued to drive down the street toward the injured men.
The defense — which has argued all three men were trying to steal Rittenhouse’s gun — asked Howard a series of questions about whether it’s reasonable to believe if someone’s weapon is taken that it could be used against them.
The detective agreed it was.
The trial will resume Thursday morning with Howard still testifying.
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