Antifa members clashed with Kenosha police, and one of the men Kyle Rittenhouse would later fatally shoot was seen pushing a flaming dumpster amid a night of fierce rioting, a witness testified Thursday at Rittenhouse’s murder trial.
Frank “Drew” Hernandez, a “professional commentator” for Real America’s Voice, told jurors he saw Rittenhouse try to tamp down tensions on Aug. 25, 2020.
“The first time I saw Kyle, he de-escalated a situation,” Hernandez, who has covered several nationwide protests on police brutality, said.
Hernadez also accused Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man Rittenhouse killed, of being “triggered,” and said he was getting physically aggressive and at one point said, “Shoot me, N-word, shoot me, N-word.”
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Prosecutors pushed back on the testimony, hinting that Hernandez worked for a conservative outlet and could be biased, something Judge Bruce Schroeder quickly shot down.
“This is not a political trial,” he said. Prosecutor Thomas Binger agreed to move on but was once again stopped by Schroeder for asking Hernandez about his decision to retain an attorney for sharing footage he shot during the riot.
Ahead of Hernandez’s testimony, expert witness John Black took the stand and testified that it took 2 minutes and 55 seconds for Rittenhouse to shoot Rosenbaum, 36, Anthony Huber, 26, and Gaige Grosskreutz.
He said less than three seconds elapsed between the time a protester in the street fired a shot in the air and Rittenhouse responded by opening fire with his rifle.
Rittenhouse’s lawyers have tried to show that the then-17-year-old feared for his life and shot the men in self-defense. Prosecutors have argued that it was a much longer window, beginning with Rittenhouse’s decision to drive to Kenosha to protect a local car lot from vandals.
After objections from prosecutors, Black was allowed by Schroeder to testify only on the timing of the sequence of events.
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He began his testimony on how sound and images can be affected by electronic storage and said he synced seven videos from that night to determine the time between the shootings. Binger objected when the defense began playing the video and argued that Black was delving into issues he shouldn’t be. He argued Schroeder had already ruled Black was not allowed to discuss certain topics.
Schroeder and Binger, who also had a tense back-and-forth on Wednesday, continued with their combative tone.
After jurors were asked to step out of the courtroom, Schroeder asked Binger why he was making a terse face.
“I have to say, your honor, yesterday, I was the target of your ire for disregarding your orders,” Binger said, accusing the defense of disregarding the judge’s orders.
“We reached an agreement on this,” Binger argued.
He again repeated that he was “under the court’s ire” and implied he was being treated differently from the defense, an accusation that did not go over well with the judge.
“I was talking yesterday about the Constitution of the United States and how the Supreme Court has interpreted it,” Schroeder said.
Schroeder also did not rule on the defense’s bid for a mistrial with prejudice in the high-profile homicide trial. If granted, it would have meant prosecutors would not be allowed to retry the 18-year-old for fatally shooting two people and injuring a third during a night of violent confrontations.
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The high-profile case was thrown into jeopardy after Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Corey Chirafisi, argued that Binger was deliberately trying to cause a mistrial by bringing up Rittenhouse’s silence in the months before the trial as well as an attempt to introduce evidence that Schroeder had ruled inadmissible.
Binger denied the allegations and said he acted in good faith, but Schroeder doubted those claims.
“When you say that you were acting in good faith, I don’t believe you,” Schroeder said.
Wednesday was also marked by emotional testimony from Rittenhouse, who sobbed on the stand and said he never intended to kill anyone.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “I defended myself.”
Rittenhouse’s daylong testimony focused on the frenzy of the night and what led to the fatal shootings. The then-17-year-old fired an AR-15-style rifle he was too young to buy legally and went to Kenosha to protect Car Source, an automobile dealership located near the heart of the protests.
Rittenhouse testified Rosenbaum cornered him and put his hand on the barrel of his rifle. He said Huber hit him with a skateboard and was part of a “mob” encouraging others to go after him. Rittenhouse said he shot Grosskreutz after the EMT pointed a pistol at him.
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Much of what Rittenhouse testified to was corroborated by multiple videos taken that night, and in one case, the prosecution’s star witness, Grosskreutz, testified during cross-examination that he had pointed his pistol at Rittenhouse.
On Thursday, Grosskreutz told ABC’s Good Morning America his time on the witness stand was “emotional” and said he was unnerved watching his “would-be murderer” testify Wednesday.
The Kenosha shootings took place during the third night of riots that erupted in the city following the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man shot in the back seven times by a white police officer. Hundreds of people showed up to the manufacturing city located about an hour away from Chicago. What started as peaceful protests quickly devolved into lawlessness. In the end, two people died, multiple others were wounded, and there was $50 million in damages.
If Rittenhouse is found guilty of the most serious charges against him, he could spend the rest of his life in jail.
Rittenhouse, as well as the men he shot, is white.
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The case has captured the nation’s attention. The public has been divided over whether Rittenhouse was a “patriot” or a vigilante.
The prosecution has gone out of its way to paint Rittenhouse as a trigger-happy out-of-town tourist who inserted himself into the chaos, despite Rittenhouse’s father being a Kenosha resident and Rittenhouse himself having a part-time job in the city.
