Gaige Grosskreutz, an alleged “people’s revolution” activist and the man wounded by Kyle Rittenhouse during the Kenosha riots on August 25, 2020, made a never-before-heard accusation from the witness stand during day five of the Rittenhouse murder trial Monday. It may just backfire on him.
Rittenhouse, who was 17-years-old at the time of the shooting, is on trial for killing two men and wounding Grosskreutz during the civil unrest.
Grosskreutz was wounded in the arm after pointing his Glock pistol at Rittenhouse as the teen lay on the ground after being kicked and bashed in the head with a skateboard. Rittenhouse fired at the man who had kicked him in the head, missed, then shot skateboard-wielding Anthony Huber once, killing him.
Under questioning by prosecutor Thomas Binger, Grosskreutz testified that Rittenhouse re-racked his Smith and Wesson M&P rifle and shot at him, but it misfired. This has never been alleged before and no one has yet testified to that effect except Grosskreutz, who characterized Rittenhouse as a “murderer” in front of the jury. That testimony was struck from the record, but jurors won’t un-hear that accusation. Indeed, it’s the jury’s decision as to whether there was malice on the part of Rittenhouse or whether he was simply protecting himself.
Grosskreutz, an out-of-town paramedic who brought his un-permitted conceal carry weapon to the protest, testified about his “experience” with guns and how he just knew that Rittenhouse had racked the rifle. He said that, for the 75 days he’d been “demonstrating” as a medic, live-streamer, and “ACLU observer,” he’d always carried his gun.
“In my experience and inference, re-racking the weapon in my mind meant that the defendant pulled the trigger but the gun didn’t fire” claimed Grosskreutz, and that the defendant “wasn’t accepting my surrender.” Grosskreutz put his hands up at one point during the melee and Rittenhouse didn’t shoot him.
Kyle Rittenhouse did not point his rifle at Gaige Grosskreutz while his hands were up. Simply not true. Gaige Grosskreutz' testimony is not supported by the evidence pic.twitter.com/qPWPvP9lBg
— Jack Posobiec 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 8, 2021
Instead, video of the incident shows Rittenhouse shooting Grosskreutz after he pointed his weapon at Rittenhouse.
Binger asked Grosskreutz, “did you feel that he was going to point the gun at you and shoot at you again?” Why that question wasn’t objected to I’ll never know, but then again I’m not an attorney. Many objections haven’t been raised by the defense attorneys in this trial.
Related: Here’s What’s Happened So Far in the Kyle Rittenhouse Trial as It Heads to Week 2
In short, Grosskreutz admitted in court that he pointed his gun at Rittenhouse, which supports Rittenhouse’s contention that he fired in self-defense. At issue in the trial is whether Rittenhouse felt the need to invoke his privilege of self-defense that night.
Grosskreutz said he “had to do something at that moment to prevent [himself] from being killed or being shot,” to which Binger asked, “why didn’t you shoot him first?” The protest regular said he just “wasn’t that kind of guy.”
He referred to Rittenhouse and others who answered the call to protect a business from arsonists and looters “militia members.”
He lamented how “militia members” bringing guns to protests only raised the stakes for violence—even though he brought one himself, and the looters, arsonists, and rioters seemed to be doing that all by themselves.
The trial entered its second week on Monday.
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