Kyle Rittenhouse, 17 at the time of the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin, lived with his mother and two sisters in an apartment in Antioch, Illinois. He worked as a lifeguard in Kenosha, just over the state line (see map below). His father and his best friend lived in Kenosha. The rifle Kyle carried and used in self defense on August 25, 2020, had been safely stored in the home of his best friend, who lived in his stepfather's house. Kyle did not carry the rifle across state lines, and he was never in possession of the rifle in any state other than Wisconsin (see video above).
Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, the first person Rittenhouse shot, had acted belligerently throughout the night, according to video evidence and witness testimony. Later, he chased Rittenhouse through a used car lot. Rittenhouse and another witness both testified that Rosenbaum had reached for Rittenhouse's gun. Rittenhouse shot four times within a second, killing him.
"Mr. Rosenbaum was chasing me. I pointed my gun at him, and that did not deter him. He could have ran away instead of trying to take my gun from me, but he kept chasing me. It didn't stop him," Rittenhouse testified.
Joshua Ziminski, 35, allegedly fired a gun in the air seconds before Rittenhouse opened fire. Ziminski was charged
with disorderly conduct by use of a dangerous weapon for firing a gun
into the air as Rittenhouse was pursued by Joseph Rosenbaum. "Detectives
met with Joshua Ziminski and his wife, Kelly Ziminski. Both admitted
that Joshua Ziminski fired off a 'warning shot' into the air during the
night of August 25, 2020."
After Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum, he ran away toward a police line, according to his testimony and video evidence. While he was running, "a mob" started to chase him, including Anthony Huber, 26, and Gaige Grosskreutz, 26. Huber struck Rittenhouse in the head and neck with a skateboard, evidence showed, and Grosskreutz was armed with a Glock pistol.
A witness who spent time with Kyle Rittenhouse on August 25, 2020, said the man Kyle shot, Joseph Rosenbaum, had threatened them earlier that evening.
Ryan Balch testified that Rosenbaum said, "I catch any of you guys alone tonight, I'm going to fucking kill you." Balch was the second witness to testify that Rosenbaum had posed a threat to Rittenhouse.
The first man Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot on August 25, 2020, Joseph Rosenbaum, had acted "hyper-aggressive" and threatened to kill Rittenhouse earlier that evening, Ryan Balch testified. Balch, one of the armed men patrolling the streets of downtown Kenosha along with Rittenhouse, told the court that Rosenbaum had appeared "aggravated" that evening and had been seen shouting "fuck you" to various protesters in the crowd. "Every time I encountered Joseph Rosenbaum, he was hyper-aggressive and acting out in a violent manner," Balch testified. "He was always having to be restrained by someone."
Balch, a combat veteran from Afghanistan and Iraq, who hung out with Rittenhouse that night, said he came with a couple of Wisconsin friends to serve as a “deterrent” to rioters causing arson fires and looting. “He seemed to be a young and impressionable kid,” Balch testified of Rittenhouse, whom he didn’t know before that night, adding that Rittenhouse said he was 19 and a lifeguard. “He seemed under-equipped and under-experienced.” He believed the protesters would “see that as a weakness and try to exploit that,” so he stayed close to Rittenhouse.
“It was like a war zone,” said Balch.
Rosenbaun chased and cornered Rittenhouse, and lunged for his rifle, after Rittenhouse, attempting to put out dumpster fires, became separated from Balch.
Richie McGinniss, the Daily Caller video editor who was running behind Joseph Rosenbaum when Kyle Rittenhouse shot him, testified in court that Rosenbaum “lunged” for Rittenhouse’s gun and “threw his momentum toward the weapon,” bolstering the defendant’s self-defense argument and blowing a major hole in the state’s case.
“It was very clear to me that he (Rosenbaum) was reaching specifically for the weapon because that’s where his hands went,” McGinniss testified. He then stood up in the courtroom, putting both of his hands out, and demonstrated the lunge. He said Rosenbaum was in an “athletic position” as if he was “running as fast as he could.” The rifle was aimed lower than Rosenbaum’s hands, which were also going lower. Rittenhouse “dodged around it,” and then leveled the weapon and fired, he testified.
“It appeared he was lunging for the front portion of the weapon,” McGinniss said, adding that Rosenbaum yelled, “F*** you,” sounding “very angry.”
“He said 'f*** you,' and then he reached for the weapon,” insisted McGinniss as the prosecutor questioned him on redirect. Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked whether there could be various reasons Rosenbaum would reach for a gun pointed at him, but McGinniss insisted that, no, rather than being pointed, the gun was at a 45-degree angle when Rosenbaum lunged, reaching about six inches up the barrel. He said Rosenbaum was in a low position running.
McGinniss, who was probably the witness closest to the shooting and who was positioned to see more than even the dramatic videos in the case show, was called to the witness stand by the prosecutor, Thomas Binger, but his testimony turned into a likely cornerstone for the defense team’s self-defense argument.
“I realized that Mr. Rosenbaum was continuing to advance, and Mr.
Rittenhouse was standing still, and based on the way Rosenbaum was
running and lunging for the portion of the rifle, it was clear to me
that something with the weapon was going to happen,” Richie McGinniss said.
“As Rosenbaum was lunging forward, my eyes were on the gun,” Richie McGinniss said many times. He said he believed that Rosenbaum was trying to get Rittenhouse’s gun.
“He was going for the barrel of the gun?” asked defense attorney Mark Richards. “Correct,” said McGinniss, who as the video editor of Daily Caller, had gone around the country to riots to chronicle what he believed the “corporate media” would not.
On cross-examination, McGinniss confirmed he told police that Rittenhouse was “trying to evade these individuals,” including Rosenbaum.
EXCLUSIVE: We have identified the mysterious Jump Kick Man who stomped on Kyle Rittenhouse as a career criminal who should have been in jail instead of part of the mob on the street the night of the shootings. https://t.co/cybELpEeW8
— Dan O'Donnell (@DanODonnellShow) November 16, 2021
Joseph Rosenbaum chased down Rittenhouse and lunged at his weapon,
prompting the then-17-year-old to fire four rounds into his pursuer.
Under state law, Rittenhouse must have reasonably believed that he or
someone else was in imminent danger of great bodily harm or death when
he opened fire, killing Rosenbaum, and, about a minute later, shooting and
killing Anthony Huber and injuring Gaige Grosskreutz.
About 28 seconds after Rosenbaum was shot, Rittenhouse was hit in the head with a stone by an unidentified man as Rittenhouse was running toward police. Rittenhouse tripped and fell down. It was then that “Jump Kick Man,” Maurice Freeland, 39, gave Rittenhouse a flying kick to the head. Over the next six seconds, Rittenhouse fired two shots at Freeland, missing him.
Anthony Huber, the second man shot and killed by Rittenhouse, began assaulting the teen with a skateboard — prompting Rittenhouse to again open fire. Huber was hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard and touching his gun when Rittenhouse fired a single round, killing Huber.
Finally, Gaige Grosskreutz pointed a handgun at Rittenhouse's head before Rittenhouse shot him in the arm.
Grosskreutz was moving toward Rittenhouse with a gun, according to videos and testimony in the case.
Grosskreutz pointed his weapon at Rittenhouse, he admitted during cross-examination.
Defense: “When you’re standing 3-5 feet from him with your arms up in the air he never fired. Right?”
Grosskreutz: “Correct.”
Defense: “It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him with your gun, now your hands down, pointed at him, that he fired, right?”
Grosskreutz: “Correct.”
Kyle Rittenhouse didn't shoot a single black person. "What people don't understand," Drew Hernandez, investigative reporter, said, "is they think it's some kind of far right-wing conspiracy theory just to tell the truth right now, or just to expose the far left, and people need to seriously wake up to this stuff because listen—I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, left, right, whatever it is—whoever is lying to you, does not respect you and wants to control you, period."
THE WHITE HOUSE IS DOUBLING DOWN ON KYLE https://t.co/gpd4D5qe6q
— Drew Hernandez (@DrewHLive) November 23, 2021
"The standard for someone attempting to disarm you is to use deadly force. This is very simple. If your firearm is taken from you then it can be used against you or another innocent person. This should be an easy concept to understand." - LEO for 33 years
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