Kyle Rittenhouse Defenders Are Saying This Is the Moment the Prosecution Collapsed

A key part in the testimony from Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse in Kenosha in August 2020, proved that the 18-year-old was acting in self-defense when he fired, supporters of the defendant have argued.

Grosskreutz took to the stand on Monday to give evidence in the trial of Rittenhouse, who is accused of shooting the 28-year-old during a Black Lives Matter protest and killing two others, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber.

The prosecution hoped that Grosskreutz's testimony would show that the then 17-year-old was not in Kenosha that day in order to protect the Wisconsin city or help those injured in the disorder, but was in fact one of the facilitators of the violence.

While being chased down the street after shooting and killing Rosenbaum, footage from the scene shows Rittenhouse falling to ground and being descended upon by Huber, who hits him with a skateboard.

On Monday, Grosskreutz told the jury how he thought Rittenhouse was an active shooter that night, adding that he thought he "was going to die."

Grosskreutz, who was armed with a handgun at the time, said he approached Rittenhouse with his hands in the air but saw the defendant "re-racking" his gun in order to fire again.

"Re-racking the weapon, in my mind, meant the defendant wasn't accepting my surrender," Grosskreutz said.

However, under cross-examination by Rittenhouse's lawyer Corey Chirafisi, Grosskreutz was shown photos which appear to show him pointing his handgun towards Rittenhouse as he was on the ground moments before the defendant fired.

"So when you were standing three to five feet from him with your arms up in the air, he never fired, right?" Chirafisi, asked, reported The New York Times.

"Correct," Grosskreutz replied.

"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?" Chirafisi added.

"Correct," Grosskreutz said.

A clip of Grosskreutz's testimony in which he admitted that he pointed his gun at Rittenhouse was shared on Twitter by lawyer David Freiheit, a YouTuber who goes by the name Viva Frei online, where it has since been viewed more than 2.7 million times.

Freiheit tweeted the clip along with the caption: "Rittenhouse trial should be over immediately." The clip came from a live-stream of the court proceedings hosted by Nick Rekieta, a Minnesota lawyer and owner of Rekieta Media.

Conservative talk show host Megyn Kelly was one of those who also tweeted out the clip.

"Huge, huge moment at Rittenhouse trial. You don't get many moments like this as a trial attny," Kelly wrote.

Grosskreutz, who is trained as a paramedic, argues he was in Kenosha that night to provide medical assistance and had no intention of firing despite being armed.

"That's not the kind of person that I am. That's not why I was out there," he said.

Speaking to Spectrum News, John Gross, a clinical associate professor of law at the University of Wisconsin Law School and director of the Public Defender Project, described the testimony from Grosskreutz as "remarkable."

"His admission under cross-examination that at the time he was shot that he'd started to point his weapon at Mr. Rittenhouse—all of those things support the defense argument that [Rittenhouse] was acting in self-defense at that point," Gross said.

Gross added that the jury must still consider whether they believe Rittenhouse was in Kenosha to provide medical assistance despite having no formal training, unlike his injured victim.

"I think there will definitely be this pull on the jurors to say, 'Why was he there? What did he hope to accomplish?'" Gross added. "I think the prosecution did a nice job this morning of setting up Mr. Grosskreutz as being there to render aid and assistance because he was a trained paramedic—Mr. Rittenhouse was not."