Kyle Rittenhouse trial: Witness testifies shooting victim lunged at Rittenhouse
KENOSHA, Wis. - The first man shot by Kyle Rittenhouse on the streets of Kenosha during a night of turbulent protests seemed to "lunge" toward Rittenhouse's rifle just before Rittenhouse fired, a video cameraman testified Thursday.
Richie McGinniss, a video director for the conservative website The Daily Caller, took the stand at Rittenhouse's murder trial and described watching as Joseph Rosenbaum chased down Rittenhouse in one of the most crucial and disputed moments of the night. It is one of the few moments not clearly captured on video.
Richard McGinniss
Prosecutor Thomas Binger repeatedly tried to get McGinniss — a witness called by the prosecution — to say Rosenbaum was actually falling when he was shot, as McGinniss said in a media interview days after the shooting.
But McGinniss said: "He was lunging, falling. I would use those as synonymous terms in this situation because basically, you know, he threw his momentum towards the weapon."
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McGinniss testified that Rittenhouse "kind of dodged around" with his weapon and then leveled the gun and fired.
Charges against Rittenhouse
Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with shooting three men, two of them fatally, in the summer of 2020. The aspiring police officer, then 17, had gone to Kenosha with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from violent protests that broke out over the police shooting of a Black man.
Kyle Rittenhouse
Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed, while his lawyer has argued that he acted in self-defense, suggesting among other things that Rittenhouse had reason to fear his weapon would be taken away and used against him.
The defense also has said that a shot fired by someone in the crowd moments before Rittenhouse began shooting made Rittenhouse believe he was under attack.
Kenosha detective testifies
Kenosha Detective Martin Howard testified that video footage shows that a protester, Joshua Ziminski, had fired the first shot into the air. Howard said he used a stopwatch and timed five or six videos to determine that 2.5 seconds later, Rittenhouse began firing at Rosenbaum.
Martin Howard, Kenosha Police Department
A wealth of video has been played in court that captured the tumultuous demonstration and the series of shootings.
The defense has suggested that Rittenhouse was the victim of a "classic ambush" from Rosenbaum, who according to testimony came out from behind a car to meet Rittenhouse and chased him as Rittenhouse shouted, "Friendly! Friendly! Friendly!"
Rosenbaum, according to police testimony, was unarmed.
The shooting of Rosenbaum set in motion the bloodshed that followed. Moments later, Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin, who was seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard.
Rittenhouse then wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a protester from West Allis, Wisconsin, who had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward Rittenhouse.
McGinniss, in testimony that appeared to work to the advantage of the defense, not the prosecution, said that as Rosenbaum advanced on Rittenhouse, "It wasn’t clear to me whether the weapon would be grabbed or fired or what exactly was going to happen. But it was clear to me that it was a situation where it was likely that something dangerous was going to happen."
Juror dismissed
Before testimony resumed Thursday, the judge dismissed a juror who had made a joke to a court security officer about the police shooting of Jacob Blake, the Black man whose wounding triggered the Kenosha protests. The juror, a retired man, declined to repeat the joke for the judge.
"My feeling is it has nothing to do with the case, it had nothing to do with Kyle and his seven charges," the juror told the judge.
"It is clear that the appearance of bias is present and it would seriously undermine the outcome of the case," Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said.
Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schoeder
Prosecutors also replayed widely seen video of the interview that The Daily Caller did with Rittenhouse before the shooting.
It began with Rittenhouse, a former police youth cadet, in front of a boarded-up building, where he said he and other men were there "to protect this business, and part of my job is there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way." He also said he was there to provide medical aid.
McGinniss testified that he also went to talk to four Black people in the crowd who seemed angry. He said one of them had two rocks or brick-like stones in his hands, and another had a rock and a strap.
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McGinniss said he asked them why they were mad, and they said that they were jumping on vehicles and that Rittenhouse came up to them with his gun. One member of the group accused Rittenhouse of waving his gun around as if he were in a movie, the witness said.
Rittenhouse, who is white, could get life in prison if convicted in the politically and racially polarizing case that has stirred furious debate over self-defense, vigilantism, the right to bear arms and the racial unrest that erupted around the U.S. after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other cases like it.
Early indications are the prosecution plans to bring witnesses forward on Friday and Monday – and potentially wrap up its case on Tuesday. That would clear the way for the defense.