KENOSHA — The Kyle Rittenhouse trial resumes Monday with key testimony expected from Gaige Grosskreutz, a medic who was shot trying to stop the teenager from fleeing the scene after killing two men.
Of the three people shot by Rittenhouse, Grosskreutz was the only one to survive. It’s anticipated his appearance on the witness stand will put a human face on what has so far been a video-heavy case that centers around very technical legal questions.
He may also offer the prosecution its best chance at debunking the defense team’s pretrial claims that all three men shot that night in August 2020 were rioters or arsonists.
Grosskreutz, a trained paramedic from suburban Milwaukee, had traveled to Kenosha to provide medical assistance to people protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Like Rittenhouse, he carried a gun and provided first aid to people injured during the demonstrations.
Gaige Grosskreutz, top, tends to an injured protester on Aug. 25, 2020, during clashes with police outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha. Within minutes, Grosskreutz was shot. (David Goldman/AP)
But unlike Rittenhouse — a 17-year-old lifeguard who misled people about his age and emergency medical technician certification — Grosskreutz was old enough to carry the firearm in public and was certified as an EMT.
The defense has not introduced any evidence that suggests Grosskreutz participated in illegal or violent activities before the shooting. Lead defense attorney Mark Richards, however, has publicly said the men Rittenhouse shot were rioters, a characterization that sparked a sharp rebuke from several victims’ rights organizations in Wisconsin, where the state constitution guarantees victims “dignity, respect, courtesy, sensitivity and fairness” in criminal trials.
“It is hard to imagine a situation in which these rights are more at issue than in discussions over whether the defense may refer to victims as looters, rioters, and arsonists, particularly when two of the victims are deceased and have no ability to defend against those legal characterizations,” attorney Amanda Rabe Mayer of Wisconsin Judicare Inc. said in a statement in response to Richards.
Grosskreutz’s lawyer also took exception to the characterization.
“Gaige Grosskreutz is not a looter, rioter or arsonist,” attorney Kimberley Motley told the Tribune. “He is a hero.”
The defense, however, will try to convince jurors that Grosskreutz unnecessarily inserted himself into a dangerous situation. He and Rittenhouse crossed paths after the first shooting, a brief encounter in which Grosskreutz asked him if he had shot someone and the teen responded that he was turning himself in.
“Gaige Grosskreutz is not in any danger,” Richards said in his opening statement. “Kyle Rittenhouse has already told him that he is going to turn himself in to police. Yet he arms and continues with the mob to attack.”
Rittenhouse, who says he acted in self-defense, volunteered as an armed security guard for a Kenosha used car lot after businesses had been burned and vandalized during demonstrations the previous day. He left his post and his partner shortly before midnight and encountered Joseph Rosenbaum, who one witness described as a “babbling idiot” who had been saying provocative things and shouting racial slurs at various times throughout the evening.
Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi points a monitor as he questions Jason Lackowksi during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha on Nov. 5, 2021. (Mark Hertzberg/POOL/AP)
The prosecution and defense disagree about who started the chase based upon thermal images from an FBI spy plane, but it’s clear from cellphone camera footage that Rosenbaum was doing the chasing right before the shooting. Rosenbaum unsuccessfully lunged for the teen’s gun and appeared to be falling toward the ground when Rittenhouse fatally shot him four times with his AR-15-style rifle, according to one witness.
Rittenhouse, whose first aid kit around his waist contained QuikClot to stop bleeding, ran away for the scene.
As he ran down the street, Rittenhouse tripped and fell to the pavement. While the teen was on the ground, 26-year-old Anthony Huber hit him with his skateboard and Rittenhouse fired a fatal bullet into his chest.
Grosskreutz, who had been recording the protests that night for a social media livestream, then approached Rittenhouse with a cellphone in one hand and a Glock semi-automatic pistol in the other, according to prosecutors. Video shows the teen turn toward him with his rifle and Grosskreutz raise his hand.
Rittenhouse then turned his rifle over as if to examine it. Grosskreutz then took a step forward, his left arm stretched out and the hand holding the gun pulled back. Rittenhouse fired a bullet into his arm.
“Mr. Grosskreutz runs off, screaming for a medic,” Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger told the jury last week. “The defendant gets up and walks away.”
Jason Lackowski, an Marine veteran who had guarded the car lot with Rittenhouse that night, heard the gunfire and ran toward the crowd to help. He found Grosskreutz writhing in pain.
“I remember being on the sidewalk and that there was an individual on the ground screaming,” he testified. He heard “someone screaming for a tourniquet.”
State witness Jason Lackowski is questioned by Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger during Kyle Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha on Nov. 5, 2021. (Mark Hertzberg/POOL/AP)
Lackowski said he helped apply the tourniquet and then waited with Grosskreutz until police arrived. After Grosskreutz was taken to the hospital, Lackowski found the injured medic’s Glock, which was fully loaded and included a bullet in the chamber, on the street.
In statements to Antioch police after he turned himself in, Rittenhouse said he “killed two white guys” after he was hit with a skateboard and a bat. He did not mention seeing a gun or injuring a third person.
Grosskreutz filed a lawsuit alleging Kenosha law enforcement essentially deputized Rittenhouse and share blame for his actions that night. The prosecution previously asked Kenosha Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to bar any mention of the lawsuit during Grosskreutz’s testimony, but Schroeder refused and said it spoke to Grosskreutz’s potential bias as a witness.
The prosecution is expected to finish presenting its case Tuesday.
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