Kyle Rittenhouse: Defence condemns ‘rush to judgment’ as prosecution casts shooter as ‘chaos tourist’

Jurors hear closing arguments from legal teams in closely watched homicide trial

Attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse criticised the prosecution’s “rush to judgment” to press homicide charges in the aftermath of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 2020, as the teenager’s defence team delivered closing arguments in the closely watched trial.

Mark Richards dismissed prosecutors’ argument that Mr Rittenhouse – who was 17 years old when he fatally shot two men and injured another with an AR-15-style rifle as protests against police violence dispersed on 25 August 2020 – had provoked the shootings, after Assistant District Attorney Mark Binger described the shooter as a “chaos tourist” who inserted himself into a volatile scene that night.

“He’s intentionally and knowingly entering into a dangerous situation,” Mr Binger said said 15 November from the Kenosha County courthouse. “I remember that night. I didn’t come down here. I don’t think most people did. In part because we all knew it would be violent and dangerous.”

During his rebuttal, Mr Richards cast Mr Rittenhouse’s first victim, Joseph Rosenbaum, as a “bad man” and “rioter” and later said he was “irrational” and “crazy”. Mr Rosenbaum, who was unarmed, was discharged from a Milwaukee hospital earlier that day.

Mr Rittenhouse, now 18, faces five felonies, including first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety in the first degree.

After two weeks of testimony, legal teams presented their closing arguments to jurors on 15 November.

Defence attorneys repeatedly objected to the presentation of video of Mr Rittenhouse pointing his rifle in the moments before he fired four shots at Mr Rosenbaum. Mr Richards said such evidence is “hocus pocus” and an “out of focus” enlarged image, despite expert testimony calling such footage an industry “gold standard” last week.

Mr Richards also said Gaige Grosskreutz, a street medic who survived a shot to the arm from Mr Rittenhouse, should have “retreated” and “let him be and go give aid and comfort” to Mr Rosenbaum. Mr Grosskreutz had approached Mr Rittenhouse after Mr Rittenhouse had fatally shot Anthony Huber, who was swinging his skateboard at Mr Rittenhouse in an apparent attempt to disarm him after the crowd pointed out that he had just shot Mr Rosenbaum.

Prosecutors have argued that Mr Grosskreutz, who was carrying a pistol, believed Mr Rittenhouse was an “active shooter” as a group chased after Mr Rittenhouse after he fled the scene where Mr Rosenbaum was dying.

Mr Richards dismissed the label “active shooter” as a “buzz word”.

He also held the rifle in front of the jury to demonstrate that he did not raise it as prosecutors have argued.

“They want it to be that Kyle was out there doing something improper,” Mr Richards said. “Kyle was a 17-year-old kid trying to help this community.”

Mr Richards said the prosecution was not able to “damage his credibility” when Mr Rittenhouse was on the witness stand on 10 November.

“Kyle Rittenhouse did not have the take the witness stand to tell his story,” Mr Richards said. “It was told through video. He wanted you, as the jurors, to hear his personal experience.”

Mr Rittenhouse – who publicly detailed the night of the shootings for the first time when he testified – did so to “tell his story the best way he could,” Mr Richards said.