Kyle Rittenhouse trial will see shooting survivor testify in key moment

Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged in the deaths of two men and for attempting to kill Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, during racial justice protests on Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The only protester shot by Kyle Rittenhouse to survive is due to testify on Monday, offering potentially critical testimony to a jury that must decide whether the U.S. teenager justifiably feared for his life when he opened fire with his rifle.

Rittenhouse, 18, has been charged in the deaths of two men and for attempting to kill Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, during racial justice protests on Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse, who faces life in prison if convicted, has pleaded not guilty and says he acted in self-defense. His lawyer said in court that Rittenhouse would take the stand in his own defense.

Grosskreutz, a former paramedic who like Rittenhouse was carrying a medical aid kit that night, has said he was in Kenosha to support the protests as well as to help anyone who was hurt. He was holding a handgun when Rittenhouse shot him.

His testimony on Monday could prove pivotal as the trial enters its second week. Last week, multiple witnesses provided testimony that seemed to support the teen’s claim of self-defense, especially in the case of Joseph Rosenbaum, the first of two men he shot and killed.

The trial is the highest profile court test of a civilian’s right to self-defense since George Zimmerman was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in 2013.

Similar to that case, the Rittenhouse shootings have proven to be highly divisive, with the teen emerging as a cause celebre for some conservatives in the perennial battle over gun rights and many on the left seeing him as a vigilante killer.

For prosecutors, Grosskreutz represents the only chance to question a survivor and elicit testimony that could rebut the notion that he was a threat to Rittenhouse, who fired a bullet that severely injured Grosskreutz’s right arm.