Rittenhouse Testimony: He Takes the Stand on Day 8 of Homicide Trial

Kyle Rittenhouse broke down crying on the stand Wednesday as he testified that he feared for his own safety prior to killing two men and injuring one with his rifle during the 2020 civil unrest in Kenosha.

On Aug. 25, 2020, Illinois teenager Kyle Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, was in Kenosha during protests following the shooting of Jacob Blake to protect local businesses, according to his attorney Mark Richards. Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injured Gaige Grosskreutz. On Day 8 of his homicide trial, Rittenhouse, now 18, took the stand to recount the shooting, where he began sobbing.

“I didn’t want to kill anyone that night,” Rittenhouse said.

Rittenhouse faces felony charges including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide, and attempted first-degree intentional reckless homicide, according to the criminal complaint against him.

Rittenhouse described the moment he shot and killed Rosenbaum when he began hyperventilating and crying. In response, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder ordered a break.

“You can just relax for a minute, sir,” said Schroeder. “We’re going to take a break for about ten minutes…”

Photo: Sean Krajacic, The Kenosha News Pool.

After the break, Rittenhouse came back to the stand. According to Rittenhouse, Rosenbaum had threatened him earlier in the evening and had grabbed for his gun while chasing him seconds before the initial shot was fired. Wendy Rittenhouse, his mother, could be heard weeping as her son described the scene.

“If I would have let Rosenbaum take my gun from me, he would have used it,” said Rittenhouse. “He would have killed me and probably killed more people with my gun.”

Kenosha Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked Rittenhouse if he had any intention to kill Rosenbaum prior to the encounter.

“I didn’t want to have to kill Mr. Rosenbaum,” Rittenhouse said. “I continued to shoot him until he was no longer a threat to me.”

Binger attempted to showcase how Rittenhouse may have instigated the encounter.

“You understand that when you point your AR-15 at someone it may make them feel that you are about to kill them, correct?” Binger asked.

After running from the initial scene, Rittenhouse testified that he shot and killed Huber after Huber hit him twice in the head with a skateboard.

“He was attacking me, so I pulled the trigger,” Rittenhouse said. “If I didn’t pull the trigger, I thought Anthony Huber was going to kill me.”

When asked why he shot Grosskreutz, Rittenhouse said that Grosskreutz lunged at him with a “gun pointed directly at my head.”

According to Rittenhouse, he was in Kenosha to “help people”. He had been protecting car lot business Car Source from any potential vandalization as well as putting out miscellaneous dumpster fires throughout the evening.

In a video with Kristan T. Harris from The Rundown Live on the night of the shooting, Rittenhouse said that he was there as a certified EMT, which was a lie.

“I’m not an EMT,” Rittenhouse said. “I told him that I was an EMT and I wasn’t.”

In an evidence video that the prosecution presented, Grosskreutz can be heard asking for a medic. Kyle continued to flee the scene.

“Grosskreutz said ‘I need a medic,’ and you don’t do anything to help him?” Binger asked.

Rittenhouse responded, “Correct,” after testifying earlier that he would’ve helped anyone who needed it.

According to Rittenhouse, he announced himself as friendly to crowds of protestors and had told them that he was there to help them. He said that protestors threw rocks at him.

“I wasn’t on any side,” Rittenhouse said. “I couldn’t tell you how they were seeing me, I just told them I was friendly.”

The prosecution showed a video before the shootings of Rittenhouse pointing a gun at a protester. In the video, the protester asked if he was doing it intentionally and Rittenhouse responded with “Yeah, I am.” He stated in court that he said that sarcastically and did not mean to point the gun in the protester’s direction.

“I didn’t lie to him, I was using sarcasm,” Rittenhouse said. “The best thing to do was to walk away in order to avoid an argument.”

Binger questioned the necessity of his comment following the interaction in the video.

“He’s unhappy because he thought you pointed your gun at him,” Binger said. “Can you understand why he was upset?”

Earlier in the day, Schroeder and Binger got into an argument surrounding the inclusion of Rittenhouse’s behavior when he was out on bail.

Four months after the shooting, Rittenhouse was seen at a bar posing for selfies in a shirt that read “Free as F***” with members of the Proud Boys, a far-right organization.

The Judge had previously said that the incident was not relevant and wanted to exclude it from the trial.

“You’re telling me that when the judge says I’m excluding this, you’re going to find a way to bring it in because you found a way around it?” Schroeder asked in an elevated tone. “Now come on.”

Binger defended himself by stating that he was acting in good faith; the trial revolves around Rittenhouse’s behavior and decision-making.