The prosecution is nearing the end of its after calling 20 witnesses over the past week who have highlighted the complex series of events during the chaotic unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year.
The testimony has at times favored the prosecution's case that Rittenhouse committed five felonies. Yet other evidence -- sometimes from the same witness -- has bolstered the defense's argument that Rittenhouse, then 17, acted in self-defense when he opened fire.
The facts of what happened August 25, 2020, are hardly in dispute: Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum -- an unarmed man who was chasing the teenager -- and then shot at three other people who confronted himed, and Gaige Grosskreutz was wounded in the shootings.
On Monday, that he believed the teenager was an active shooter and so pursued him and unholstered his own concealed firearm. He testified that he put his hands up when Rittenhouse pointed his AR-15-style rifle at him but believed Rittenhouse did not accept his surrender. Rittenhouse shot him in the right bicep.
"I was never trying to kill the defendant," Grosskreutz said. "In that moment, I was trying to preserve my own life, but doing so while taking the life of another is not something I am capable or comfortable doing."
However, Grosskreutz also admitted that he pointed his own gun at Rittenhouse during the standoff, that his concealed carry license had expired and that he incorrectly told police investigators his gun had fallen out of his pants earlier in the night.
"It wasn't until you pointed your gun at him, advanced at him with your gun ... that he fired," defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said.
"Right," Grosskreutz responded.
Rittenhouse fired an AR-15-style weapon eight times that night during the chaotic following the He shot Rosenbaum four times; fired twice at an unknown man who tried to kick him; fatally shot Huber, who had hit him with a skateboard; and shot Grosskreutz in the arm.
Rittenhouse, now 18, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree attempted intentional homicide.
The prosecution called 15 witnesses last week, including police, witnesses and armed men out in Kenosha that night. Five other witnesses testified on Monday.
Defense focuses on Rosenbaum as aggressor
Defense attorney Mark Richards said Rittenhouse fired only in self-defense. In opening statements, he described Rosenbaum as the aggressor in the initial shooting and said Huber and Grosskreutz were part of a mob who "attacked him in the street like an animal."
To make their case, the defense has repeatedly focused on what one witness described as Rosenbaum's "erratic" behavior that night. show he threw a plastic bag at Rittenhouse and chased him across a parking lot before the teenager shot him.
Other video from earlier in the night showed Rosenbaum yelling, "shoot me (n-word)." One of the armed men "belligerently" and another said he had threatened to kill him and Rittenhouse.
"He goes, 'You know, If I catch any of you guys alone tonight, I'm gonna f***ing kill you,'" , a military veteran who brought his weapon into Kenosha that night.
Rosenbaum had just been released from the hospital that morning, his fiancée Kariann Swart testified. She said he was on an antidepressant as well as medication to treat bipolar disorder.
Richie McGinniss, a video editor with The Daily Caller news site, testified that Rosenbaum had lunged for the front of Rittenhouse's rifle moments before he was shot.
"It was as if, you know, if you were to lunge at somebody, if anybody were to lunge, they would probably stop themselves, you know, from falling face down on the ground, but the shots were fired in the exact instance that his momentum was going forward and that continued until Mr. Rosenbaum landed on the ground," McGinniss said.
McGinniss was just feet from the two when Rittenhouse opened fire, and McGinniss said he jumped out of the line of fire and then shook his legs out to make sure he hadn't been hit.
"Given where I was, certainly I was in danger," he said.
The testimony is key to one of the charges against Rittenhouse -- a felony count of first-degree recklessly endangering safety.
Judge says officers stopped person recording jurors
Judge Bruce Schroeder said a lieutenant reported that someone was recording jurors as they were arriving to court Tuesday morning.
The judge said the officers required the video be deleted and returned the phone to the person.
"I've instructed that if it happens again, they're to take the phone and bring it here," Schroeder said.
It's not clear whether the person recording was a reporter, the judge said.
"I've been assured officers had the video which had been taken ... deleted and new procedures are being instituted, so that something like that should not recur -- I'm frankly quite surprised that it did -- and we have different procedures to do with respect to if it would occur, so I don't have any particular concern about it anymore. I'm very sensitive to this entire issue," Schroeder told the jurors.
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