Kyle Rittenhouse. Murder or Self Defence?

[Wonderfulspam]

The defence presented further video & eye witness testimony today showing that in the minutes before the first shooting, the defendant had been slowly walking down the street, threatening no one & with no one threatening or aggressive toward him.

It appears Mr Rosenbaum was ahead of Rittenhouse, must have seen him & recognised him from his earlier encounter (where he threatened to kill him if he got him alone) & then waited behind some cars before ambushing him.

Around 20 mins prior to this was when Mr Rosenbaum was acting aggressively & challenging those protecting the gas station to shoot him.

He was a loose cannon that night having just been released after an overdose.

[Wonderfulspam]

There is video evidence of a laser coming from the roof of the car source which is where the militia including Rittenhouse where positioned although it is unclear at what time this was, presumably this was before the incident at the gas station.

This is damning as it shows Mr Rosenbaum may have been intimidated some time prior.

[Wonderfulspam]

This all makes sense now, at some point in the evening Mr Rittenhouse was pointing a laser sight at protesters.

He was spotted & recognised later which is why Mr Rosenbaum threatened to kill & attacked him.

I'm not sure how this will affect his defence as you can't threaten someone then react later in self defence.

So now the situation is that Rosenbaum wanted to disarm Kyle because he had been intimated by him earlier.

It explains everything.

[Wonderfulspam]

A protester known as Yellow pants recognised Mr Rittenhouse some time preceding the shootings & said "You were the one who pointed a laser at me" to which Mr Rittenhouse claimed sarcastically "I did".

So there we have it, Rittenhouse on the roof pointing a gun at people.

[Wonderfulspam]

The video doesn't show Rittenhouse at the gas station later but it makes sense Rosenbaum would be challenging Rittenhouse to shoot him.

[Vertigo Swirl]

I wonder why they all picked on little Kyle with his big gun?

So it would appear my question has now been answered.

[Wonderfulspam]

So it would appear my question has now been answered.

Yep, there is enhanced (still grainy) footage showing he may have briefly pointed his rifle toward the Ziminski's when he bumped into them seconds prior to being ambushed. (It's still fuzzy though)

The strange thing is, the Ziminski's were never called by the prosecution to testify.

Rittenhouse antagonised people earlier in the evening & committed premeditated self defence later.

[Wonderfulspam]

He'd spent time at a police cadets & probably understood the laws of self defence imo

[Vertigo Swirl]

Yep, there is enhanced (still grainy) footage showing he may have briefly pointed his rifle toward the Ziminski's when he bumped into them seconds prior to being ambushed. (It's still fuzzy though)

The strange thing is, the Ziminski's were never called by the prosecution to testify.

Rittenhouse antagonised people earlier in the evening & committed premeditated self defence later.

I’ve not heard of the term yet pre-meditated self-defence before but it exactly describes what I suspected happened when I first read about this case.  The guy went out with a gun hoping to find himself in a situation which would give him a good excuse to kill a few people.  IMO.

[Wonderfulspam]

I’ve not heard of the term yet pre-meditated self-defence before but it exactly describes what I suspected happened when I first read about this case.  The guy went out with a gun hoping to find himself in a situation which would give him a good excuse to kill a few people.  IMO.

It seems he planned it, cunning.

His timeline of movements isn't entirely clear through the evening because he wasn't recorded at all times.

But yes, premediated self defence.

It seems a lot of witnesses may not have come forward because f..k the police, I know the Ziminski guy has huge rap sheet & is facing charges for firing his gun in the air during the incident.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Looks like he’ll get off anyway.  Nice crying face he put on yesterday.

[Wonderfulspam]

Looks like he’ll get off anyway.  Nice crying face he put on yesterday.

Well, they can't get him on premeditated self defence so I don't see any other result.

Just the weapons charges, or maybe excessive use of force on Mr Rosenbaum.

[Vertigo Swirl]

Well, they can't get him on premeditated self defence so I don't see any other result.

Just the weapons charges, or maybe excessive use of force on Mr Rittenbaum.

Don’t you mean Rosenbaum?  I thought the defence was pushing for a mistrial? 

[Wonderfulspam]

His charges are as follows,

First-degree reckless homicide against Joseph Rosenbaum, punishable by imprisonment of up to 65 years

First-degree recklessly endangering safety against Richard McGinnis (a reporter who interviewed Rittenhouse before the shooting), punishable by imprisonment for up to 17 years.

First-degree intentional homicide against Anthony Huber, punishable by a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Attempted first-degree intentional homicide against Gaige Grosskreutz, punishable by imprisonment of up to 65 years

First-degree recklessly endangering safety against an unknown male victim, punishable by imprisonment of up to 17 years

Possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18 (the only misdemeanor charge, the others are felonies)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenosha_unrest_shooting

[Wonderfulspam]

Don’t you mean Rosenbaum?  I thought the defence was pushing for a mistrial?

Yes, sorry, misspell.

Yes they did appear to be pushing for a mistrial, perhaps to gather further evidence & rebuild the case, now they have things down in sworn testimony.

But they could still get him on reckless homicide, possibly, I'm not sure how that fits with the self defence though.

Trial has ajourned until Monday