Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial is approaching an end as attorneys are set to make closing arguments on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021, in his alleged shooting of three men during street protests in Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse, now 18, was 17 when his mother Wendy Rittenhouse drove him a few miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois, across the state border to Kenosha, Wsconsin, on Aug. 25, 2020. The city was embroiled in protests following a White police officer’s shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, after a domestic disturbance call. Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Video footage captured Rittenhouse, with a Smith and Wesson AR-style semiautomatic rifle, shooting and killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 28. Judge Bruce Schroeder ruled last month before the start of the trial that prosecutors would not be able to refer to the people he shot as “victims,” while defense attorneys were not able to call the victims “arsonists” or “looters.”
One of Rittenhouse’s charges is first-degree intentional homicide, which could land him in prison for life. He could also face 60 years each on other homicide-related charges. His two reckless endangerment charges could net him 12 years each and he’s also facing a misdemeanor weapons charge that is only a nine-month sentence if convicted.
Rittenhouse was released on $2M bail in November 2020 with monies donated by conservative organizations. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has placed 500 National Guard members on standby as the closing arguments begin today. The National Guard will be available only if local law enforcement needs them.
“I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully,” Evers said in a statement.
