KENOSHA, WIS. — Kyle Rittenhouse broke down sobbing Wednesday as he testified at his murder trial, telling the jurors he felt trapped in the moments before he fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum.
“I was cornered,” he said, before starting to cry.
Rittenhouse, 18, became so emotional at that point, he could not form complete sentences. The judge called a 10-minute break to allow him to compose himself.
When jurors walked by Rittenhouse after the judge called a recess to allow him to regain his composure, many looked up at him in apparent sympathy as he continued to cry. On a courtroom bench across the room and within earshot of the jurors, Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, sobbed loudly.
Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to the charges and says he acted in self-defense when he fatally shot Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz in August 2020. At the time, Rittenhouse was 17 and living in Antioch.
“Two of them passed away, but I stopped the threat that was attacking me,” he testified.
Rittenhouse and the men he shot were in downtown Kenosha that night amid social unrest following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. Blake’s uncle, Justin, who has been quietly protesting outside the courthouse each day, said he was unmoved by Rittenhouse’s tears.
“I don’t have any empathy for someone who comes into this town uninvited, with an assault rifle, and puts himself in the middle of it,” Blake said. “He has never shown any empathy for the people he killed, so I don’t believe it now.”
In the courtroom, the day’s most emotional outburst belonged to Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder, who twice stopped the proceedings to yell at Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger outside the jury’s presence. With the defense team demanding a mistrial, Schroeder accused Binger of infringing on the defendant’s right to remain silent and for ignoring a pretrial ruling.
“Don’t get brazen with me,” he shouted.
The defense suggested Binger may have intentionally tried to force a mistrial because the case was going so badly for him that he wanted a do-over. Such a motive could be cause for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning the case could not be retried and Rittenhouse would go free. The judge has not yet ruled on the request.
After court ended for the day, Blake led a march near the courthouse to demand justice for the men Rittenhouse shot. About three dozen peaceful protesters lit candles and prayed, with many of them expressing doubts about Rittenhouse’s sincerity on the witness stand.
“It was a circus. It was an act,” said Bishop Tavis Grant, national field director with the Chicago-based Rainbow/PUSH Coalition. “This is not a play. … He should be held accountable.”
The sign-toting demonstrators, who were of diverse races and ages, said the trial is about racial equality and that Rittenhouse is getting special treatment.
“We’ve never seen a Black or brown defendant be given this kind of leeway,” Grant said. “We have a glaring opportunity to look justice in the face and say justice cannot be right for some — it must be right for all.”
