Kyle Rittenhouse trial begins, U.S. prosecutor attempts to label him as aggressor

Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for the killing of two men during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year and is facing charges of reckless and intentional homicides.

The prosecution on Tuesday sought to portray a U.S. teenager accused of fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year as an aggressor who was an outlier in resorting to deadly force, aiming to undercut his claim of self-defense.

Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, shot dead two protesters and wounded a third man with a semi-automatic rifle amid protests over the police shooting of a Black man.

In his opening statement, Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger acknowledged that chaos had engulfed Kenosha, as agitators came like “moths to a flame” to engage in arson, rioting and looting.

Binger repeated seven times that Rittenhouse was the only person to have killed anyone on Aug. 25, 2020, the night he shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 27, in the arm.

“The evidence will show that the only person who killed anyone was the defendant, Kyle Rittenhouse,” Binger said.

Binger said the evidence would show that the bullet that killed Rosenbaum – who was chasing the teenager and threw a plastic bag at him but was unarmed – was to his back. Binger said Rittenhouse fled the scene without providing first aid.

Rittenhouse, now 18, is charged with reckless and intentional homicides in the killing of Rosenbaum and Huber and the wounding of Grosskreutz with an AR-15-style rifle. He has pleaded not guilty and says he acted in self-defense.

The unrest had been sparked by a white police officer’s shooting and wounding of Jacob Blake, just three months after the police murder of George Floyd, another Black man, in Minneapolis sparked nationwide protests over racism and police brutality.