Kyle Rittenhouse’s lawyers argue client acted in self-defense
CHICAGO – Kyle Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued that he clearly acted in self-defense when he shot three people – two fatally – at a protest in Kenosha late last month.
The success or failure of a potential courtroom self-defense claim, however, could hinge on questions about the teen’s actions before he fired and details that have yet to emerge, defense lawyers in Wisconsin said. As in other states, the law in Wisconsin allows people to use guns to defend themselves against serious threats, but there are exceptions to that right.
One potential key issue: Could prosecutors show that Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch, Illinois, committed an unlawful act that provoked attacks on him? If so, the law holds that he would have to show he exhausted his chances to flee or otherwise avoid being harmed before shooting, attorneys said. And whoever was the aggressor, Rittenhouse would have to show he reasonably believed he had to shoot to prevent his death or serious injury.
Milwaukee defense attorney Craig Mastantuono, who has handled selfdefense claims, told the Chicago Tribune it could be challenging for Rittenhouse’s lawyers to successfully argue self-defense when neither of the men killed is said to have carried a gun or other clearly lethal weapon. Video shows that one of the men who died had a skateboard, and prosecutors wrote that video indicated that a third man Rittenhouse wounded had a gun.
“Anybody claiming that this is clear-cut selfdefense is way premature,” Mastantuono said. “The evidence still has to come in and witnesses still need to be spoken to and the video isn’t the only evidence.”
Attorney John M. Pierce, whose firm has represented associates of President Donald Trump, took Rittenhouse’s case and issued a statement days after the shooting that casts the people shot as attackers and said the teen “exercised his God-given, Constitutional, common law and statutory law right to self-defense.”
When reached by the Tribune, Pierce asked for emailed questions but did not respond to them.
The politically charged conversation around Rittenhouse’s case has centered largely on videos that prosecutors allege show the teenager shooting three men with an Ar-15-style rifle Aug. 25 during violent protests over white police Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake a couple of days earlier.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice, which is investigating the shooting, has said Blake admitted to possessing a knife, though not whether he wielded it during the confrontation. Investigators recovered a knife from the floorboard of the SUV that Blake was driving. Blake’s family has said he is paralyzed from the waist down.
Videos show that Rittenhouse was among numerous civilians armed with rifles who interjected themselves into the protests, property destruction and
looting that followed Blake’s shooting. Kenosha County prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse with murder, first-degree reckless homicide and four other counts.
Some conservatives and gun rights advocates immediately defended Rittenhouse. For example, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Rittenhouse “decided to maintain order when no one else would.” Trump said the teen was “in very big trouble” and “probably would have been killed” during the confrontation.
Liberal commentators have argued that Rittenhouse needlessly killed two people after wading heavily armed into unrest over police violence against African Americans. New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie wrote that, “Rittenhouse should not have been there, and we should agree – all of us – that the shooting should not have happened.”
The shootings are among several to occur during unrest nationwide in the three months since George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis cop. At least two men identified as gunmen who shot protesters have said they fired in self-defense, according to media reports.
There is extensive video footage from the night of the Kenosha shootings, and it forms both the backbone of prosecutors’ charges and Rittenhouse’s lawyer’s statement in his defense.