Instigator or victim? 2 different portrayals of Rittenhouse in trial

Jurors heard KENOSHA,WIS. — starkly different portrayals of Kyle Rittenhouse instigator

— or victim in opening state

— ments at his trial Tuesday on charges of shooting three people on the streets of Kenosha during a turbulent protest against racial injustice.

A prosecutor said Ritten- house set the bloodshed in motion when he triggered a confrontation with a man that night and then killed him with a bullet to the back.

But Rittenhouse’s attorney told the jury that his cli- ent acted in self-defense after the man tried to grab Rittenhouse’s gun and others kicked him in the face and clubbed him in the head with a skateboard.

“You as jurors will end up looking at it from the standpoint of a 17-year-old under the circumstances as they existed,” defense attorney Mark Richards said.

Rittenhouse, now 18, is charged with killing two men and wounding a third during the summer of 2020 with an assault-style rifle. The onetime aspiring police officer could get life in prison if con- victed.

The teenager traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, just across the Wisconsin state line, after protests broke out over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer. Rittenhouse said he went there to protect prop- erty after two nights in which rioters set fires and ransacked businesses.

The first witness was his sister’s boyfriend, Dominick Black, who faces charges he bought the rifle for Ritten- house months before the shootings because the teenager was not old enough to own one at the time.

Black testified that he and Rittenhouse went to down- town Kenosha to help protect a car dealership after vehicles were burned the night before. Black said he thought nobody would start trouble if they saw him with his assault-style rifle. He also said Rittenhouse helped give medical aid and put out fires.

Black said he was on the roof as protesters hurled gasoline bombs and rocks at the business. He said he heard gunshots but didn’t know Rittenhouse was involved until the teenager called and said, “I shot somebody, I shot somebody.”

Afterward, Black said, Rittenhouse was “freaking out. He was really scared. He was pale, shaking a lot.” Black said Rittenhouse told him that he acted in self-defense because “people were trying to hurt him.”