MILWAUKEE — The first week of 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse’s homicide trial has wrapped up.
On the fifth day of the trial, the state called nine more witnesses to the stand, including character witnesses to give the jury a better look at how people were acting that night. The state is trying to show the jury that Joseph Rosenbaum was not an aggressor toward Rittenhouse, arguing against the claim that Rittenhouse argued in self-defense.
Gaige Grosskreutz, the man Rittenhouse shot and injured, is expected to testify Monday.
Rittenhouse, from Illinois, is charged with killing two people and wounding a third during a police brutality protest in Kenosha, Wis., last year.
Rittenhouse faces six counts, including first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide, in the Aug. 25, 2020, deaths of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, who is now 27. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, could face life in prison if convicted on the first-degree homicide charge.
He traveled across the state border from his home in Illinois to Kenosha, during protests in the city following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer. The case is polarizing across the political spectrum, with some seeing him as a vigilante, and others portraying him as a patriot who acted in self-defense.
Here is a recap of the first week of the trial:
