He ruled it wouldn’t be allowed, though he suggested he could reassess that ruling later. Thomas Binger, the lead prosecutor, said it showed Rittenhouse’s mindset as “a teenage vigilante, involving himself in things that don’t concern him.” But Judge Bruce Schroeder questioned the relevance of the video to the charges. Prosecutors had hoped to bolster their case by introducing as evidence a brief video taken 15 days before the protest shootings that shows Rittenhouse watching some men exit a CVS pharmacy and commenting that he wished he had his rifle so he could shoot them because prosecutors say he baselessly thought they were shoplifters. Rittenhouse “was the aggressor, there with the intent to violently clash with those opposed to his beliefs,” prosecutors have said. They also argue that Rittenhouse wasn’t there to protect businesses but to join other armed counterprotesters with whom he sympathized.
They portray him as a wannabe cop who came looking for trouble and fame, and that by bringing a rifle to the late-night protest, he was the primary cause of the deadly encounters. Rittenhouse’s trip to Kenosha will be a key part of their case. (A prosecutor later cleared the officer, ruling that Blake was turning toward the officer with a knife.) Rittenhouse, then 17, was among people who traveled to Kenosha after calls went out on social media to come bearing weapons to protect the city from damaging protests that followed a white police officer shooting Blake, a Black man, in the back on Aug. 25, 2020, deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, and he could face life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge. Rittenhouse, 18, of Antioch, Illinois, faces six counts including homicide charges in the Aug.
What’s less clear is whether prosecutors will be able to persuade the jury that Rittenhouse created a deadly situation by showing up in Kenosha with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle - and that in doing so he forfeited his claim to self-defense.
Legal experts say under Wisconsin law he has a strong case. (AP) - When Kyle Rittenhouse goes on trial Monday for shooting three men during street protests in Wisconsin that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake last summer, he’ll argue that he fired in self-defense.
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