The lone survivor shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year said Thursday that he believes the teen’s emotional display at his murder trial was mostly about him being “upset that he was caught” for the shootings.
Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a paramedic shot in the arm, said it was “emotional” to watch Rittenhouse, 18, testify about injuring him and killing two other men last summer as riots broke out in the city over racial injustice.
“To me, it seemed like a child who just gotten caught doing something that he wasn’t supposed to — more upset that he was caught and less upset about what he had done and what he had taken and the numerous lives that he affected through his actions that night,” Grosskreutz said on “Good Morning America.”
Grosskreutz’s lawyer, Kimberly Motley, said Rittenhouse’s testimony that he acted in self-defense was “inconsistent” with what unfolded the night of Aug. 25, 2020.
“You know, he was not, I believe, in imminent fear of danger for his own life,” she said, noting that the teen was an “active shooter.”
“People need to pay attention to the inconsistent statements from the … defendant.”
However, legal experts have argued that Grosskreutz’s own testimony contradicts that argument.
When questioned on the stand, Grosskreutz admitted that it wasn’t until he pointed his gun at Rittenhouse that the accused fired.
“It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him with your gun, now your hands down, pointed at him that he fired, right?,” defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said during his cross-examination.
“Correct,” Grosskreutz responded, later adding that he did not mean to point his gun at Rittenhouse.
Defense attorney and former New York City prosecutor Julie Rendelman told Fox News that Grosskreutz’s admission bolsters the defense’s argument that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.
“It’s hard to imagine that someone pulls out a gun, unholsters it, points it and then says they didn’t intend to point it,” she said.
“But the important thing is in what’s in the mind of Rittenhouse. And if you follow the law, you know, they have to decide whether Rittenhouse believed he was in peril and whether the belief was reasonable under the circumstances.”
Rendelman added: “He’s not expected to read the mind of the person pointing the gun at him and go, ‘Oh, he didn’t intend to point it at me, so I can’t shoot him.’”
Rittenhouse sobbed uncontrollably on the stand Wednesday as he described the moments leading up to killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, then wounding Grosskreutz.
The emotional testimony prompted the judge to call a recess for 10 minutes, as Rittenhouse’s mother also cried in the gallery.
Rittenhouse faces six charges, including intentional homicide and attempted homicide. If convicted of the top charge, he could face a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
His lawyers on Wednesday requested a mistrial with prejudice, arguing that the prosecution overreached in their line of questioning.
If the judge grants the mistrial, the state won’t be able to retry the case.
