Attorney claims Kyle Rittenhouse acted in self-defense as video shows him shooting armed victim

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Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse shot one of his victims five times including in the head, the criminal complaint reveals – but his attorney has claimed it was he who was ‘attacked’ and insisted he was acting in self-defense.  

Rittenhouse’s attorney Lin Wood said the 17-year-old vigilante was ‘attacked’ with ‘lethal force’ and ‘had the right to defend himself’ when he shot dead two unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters and injured a third man in the streets of Kenosha Tuesday night, as new video reveals a different angle to one of the attacks. 

Footage has emerged online of the suspected killer shooting his third and only surviving victim Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm while the 26-year-old was carrying a handgun.

This came moments after Rittenhouse is accused of fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, and Anthony Huber, 26, and calling a friend to tell them ‘I’ve killed someone’. 

Rittenhouse is accused of riddling Rosenbaum with bullets, with the criminal complaint revealing he shot his victim a total of five times – in the right groin, back, left hand, left thigh and right side of his forehead. 

Huber’s devastated girlfriend broke her silence over his ‘murder’ Friday, saying her ‘heroic’ boyfriend died trying to save the lives of her and other bystanders. 

Rittenhouse, a police-obsessed Donald Trump supporter, appeared before a judge briefly on a Zoom call on Friday. 

His extradition hearing has been pushed back another month. He will return to court on September 25. 

The teen is faced with murder charges while outrage builds nationwide over the different treatment by cops of the white armed teen compared to their treatment of black unarmed man Jacob Blake. 

Blake was shot seven times in the back by a white cop in front of his three young children Sunday afternoon, leaving the father-of-six paralyzed from the waist down.

Rittenhouse faces five felony charges that include first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor. 

His attorney, Lin Wood, claims the teenager was ‘attacked’ with ‘lethal force’ and had simply acted in self-defense. 

‘I think any average citizen would know self-defense when they see it,’ Wood told Fox News. 

‘This young man was attacked. He was attacked with what was clearly lethal force. He had the right to defend himself.’

Wood slammed the multiple felony charges brought against the suspected killer as ‘false’.    

‘From my standpoint, it’s important that the message be clear to other Americans who are attacked that there will be legal resources available in the event false charges are brought against them,’ Wood told Associated Press. 

‘Americans should never be deterred from exercising their right of self-defense.’ 

Another attorney for Rittenhouse John Pierce vowed to Fox News that the teen’s legal team will prove self-defense and ‘obtain justice for Kyle no matter how hard the fight or how long it takes.’ 

New footage provides a fresh angle on the events surrounding the 17-year-old’s alleged shooting spree.  

The video shows the moment Grosskreutz, 26, approached Rittenhouse as the 17-year-old was sat on the ground having tripped and fallen moments earlier. 

Grosskreutz, of West Allis, about 30 miles northwest of Kenosha, is armed with a handgun in his right hand and appears to come towards Rittenhouse. 

He does not appear to be pointing the gun at the 17-year-old but seems to reach with his unarmed hand to grab the child’s weapon. 

Rittenhouse opens fire at Grosskreutz at close range shooting him in the arm and causing him to leap away as a man standing behind the victim holds his hands up in self defense at the 17-year-old.  

Wisconsin is an open carry state, meaning people aged 18 and over are legally allowed to carry a gun. 

For people under 18 it is illegal to own or carry a gun and is classed as a Class A misdemeanor. 

This means Grosskreutz, aged 26, was legally permitted to be carrying his handgun. 

Rittenhouse meanwhile is 17 and so was illegally carrying the AR-15 rifle he used to shoot Grosskreutz and the two other victims.   

At the time the footage was taken, Rittenhouse had already allegedly shot dead Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, and Huber, 26, of Silver Lake.

Grosskreutz, who worked as a paramedic in Milwaukee and is currently studying outdoor education at a college in Wisconsin, was rushed to hospital where he underwent surgery and is now in a stable condition. 

Activist Bethany Crevensten said Grosskreutz, a social justice activist, was volunteering as a medic when he was shot and called him ‘a hero.’   

Patti Wenzel, 55, who considers Grosskreutz to be ‘like a son’, told the Chicago Sun Times Grosskreutz had gone to the protest equipped with a medical bag – intending to provide help, if anybody needed it. 

‘He’s always been someone who’d help out his friends and give them the shirt off his back if he has one,’ she said. 

Wenzel said Grosskreutz is part of the People’s Revolution Movement of Milwaukee, a social justice group.

The deadly night unfolded when, at around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, Rittenhouse was walking down the streets near a car dealership holding ‘a Smith & Wesson AR-15 style .223 rifle,’ according to a criminal complaint released by prosecutors Thursday. 

The complaint states Rittenhouse clashed with people in the car lot.   

Rosenbaum, who was unarmed, threw a plastic bag at the gunman and attempted to take the weapon from him, the complaint states.

The plastic bag missed Rittenhouse and he and Rosenbaum moved across the parking lot and appeared to be in close proximity to each other when the 17-year-old opened fire on the victim, according to the complaint. 

A journalist on the scene told investigators the victim was trying to get the suspect’s gun off him. 

Rosenbaum was shot five times in the right groin and back – which fractured his pelvis and perforated his right lung and liver – his left hand, left thigh and right side of his forehead, according to the criminal complaint.  

As his victim lay dying on the ground, the suspect ran from the scene and made a call to a friend saying: ‘I just killed somebody’.

His friend received a call from him at 11:46 p.m. where he said he had shot someone, the complaint alleges.

Rosenbaum was pronounced dead at 12:47 a.m. Wednesday. 

The gunman then ran down the street and was chased by several people shouting that he just shot someone before he tripped and fell, according to the complaint and video footage. 

While Rittenhouse was on the ground, a man with a skateboard – later identified as Huber – approached him, the complaint says.  

Huber, who was also unarmed, appears to be ‘reaching for the defendant’s gun with his left hand as the skateboard makes contact with the defendant’s left shoulder’, the complaint reads. 

As Huber allegedly tries to disarm the suspected killer, Rittenhouse shoots the victim in the chest.

Huber staggers away before collapsing to the ground and dying. 

The victim’s autopsy revealed he suffered a gunshot wound to his chest that perforated his heart, aorta, pulmonary artery and right lung. 

The complaint says Grosskreutz froze, ducked to the ground and took a step back when he saw Rittenhouse shoot Huber. 

He puts his hands in the air and then began to approach the suspect, the complaint says. 

Rittenhouse then shot him in the left arm at close range, the complaint says. 

Grosskreutz managed to flee the scene and called for a medic as the suspect walked away, the complaint reads.  

Huber’s heartbroken girlfriend has told how she watched her boyfriend being ‘murdered’ in the street by the 17-year-old as he risked his own life to protect her and other protesters demonstrating for racial justice. 

‘He pushed me out of the way, like he was telling me to run off, and I tried to grab him,’ Hannah Gittings told CNN. 

‘I should have been there, but there was going to be no changing his mind.’ 

Gittings described his actions as ‘heroic’ and blasted the ‘kid’ who ‘snatched’ away his life. 

‘He did not deserve to die,’ she said of Huber. 

‘This kid just snatched any chance for him to have been able to live the life that he deserved to live.’ 

The public is demanding answers from Kenosha police over their interactions with the gunman Tuesday night. 

Shocking video footage appears to show Rittenhouse casually walk past cops and leave the scene with his rifle slung over his shoulder and his hands in the air following his alleged shooting rampage. 

Members of the crowd yell at the cops to arrest him telling them he has shot people but the 17-year-old is able to leave the scene and is not arrested until the following day.  

Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth defended the actions of the officers saying the gunman likely slipped away because the scene was chaotic, with lots of radio traffic and people screaming, chanting and running – conditions he said can cause ‘tunnel vision’ among officers.

Video taken before the shooting also shows police tossing bottled water from an armored vehicle and thanking civilians armed with long guns walking the streets. 

One of them appears to be Rittenhouse.

Outrage is especially building as people draw comparisons between the treatment of the illegally armed 17-year-old who had allegedly shot dead two men and injured another and the treatment of Blake by cops. 

Blake was not armed with a gun when he was shot seven times in the back in front of his children two days earlier. 

Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes on Thursday decried how Rittenhouse, whom he described as a vigilante accountable to nobody, could walk away while police talked about finding a knife inside Blake’s vehicle after he was shot in the back.

He said the fact Rittenhouse and others came to Kenosha to take matters into their own hands ‘was completely horrifying.’ 

Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, about 15 miles from Kenosha, was taken into custody Wednesday in Illinois. 

He was assigned a public defender in Illinois for a hearing Friday on his transfer to Wisconsin. 

Under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.

He will face a mandatory life sentence if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide.  

The shootings took place at a Black Lives Matter protest Tuesday night after demonstrations erupted in Kenosha following what marks the latest in a string of incidents where black men and women have been killed or seriously injured by cops across America.

Black father-of-six Blake, 29, was shot seven times in the back by a white Kenosha cop Sunday evening in front of his three young children.  

Officers had been responding to a 911 call from Blake’s girlfriend reporting ‘that her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises.’ 

Cops tried to subdue him with a taser before one opened fire shooting him seven times in the back in the doorway of his vehicle.  

On Wednesday, the Wisconsin Attorney General identified the cop that fired all seven shots as Officer Rusten Sheskey – a seven-year veteran of the force. 

Sheskey and all other cops involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

No charges have been brought against any of the officers.  

The AG said a knife was recovered from Blake’s vehicle after the shooting and claim he was reaching for the knife or it fell from his hand when he was riddled with bullets by the cop.

However it is unclear if Blake had the knife on him when he was talking to police and there has been no suggestion Blake threatened anyone with a knife. 

Blake’s family said the 29-year-old has been left paralyzed.  

Ben Crump, the lawyer for Blake’s family, said Tuesday that it would ‘take a miracle’ for Blake to walk again. 

He called for the arrest of Sheskey and for the others involved to lose their jobs.   

Blake’s father told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday that he was upset to learn his son was handcuffed to the hospital bed.

‘He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?’ said his father, also named Jacob Blake.

Online court records indicate Kenosha County prosecutors charged Blake on July 6 with sexual assault, trespassing and disorderly conduct in connection with domestic abuse. An arrest warrant was issued the following day.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that all hospitalized patients in police custody are restrained unless undergoing medical procedures, and that it was working ‘to ensure a safe and humane environment for Mr. Blake.’

At a news conference, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers replied ‘hell yes,’ when asked if he was concerned about Blake being handcuffed. 

‘He paid a horrific price already,’ the governor said.

Thousands have taken to the streets demanding justice and calling for an end to police brutality and racism – reigniting demonstrations that have taken place since May following the ‘murder’ of George Floyd by a Minneapolis cop.    

The governor has authorized the deployment of 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha, doubling the number of troops in the city of 100,000. 

Guard troops from Arizona, Michigan and Alabama were coming to Wisconsin to assist, Evers said Thursday. He did not say how many.

In Washington, the Justice Department said it was sending in more than 200 federal agents from the FBI, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 

The White House said up to 2,000 National Guard troops would be made available. 

The Justice Department also announced that the US attorney’s office and FBI would conduct a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Blake, in cooperation with Wisconsin state law enforcement agencies.

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