A sound of gunfire and then a call: ‘I just shot somebody’
said he did not think that Facebook group had issued any similar call as the Kenosha Guard.
Black stayed on the roof with his gun.
He watched as protesters got pushed away from the courthouse and split into smaller groups by riot trucks and police.
“They pushed them past us, and when they were going past us, they didn’t like that we were standing on the roof with guns and they started throwing rocks and whatnot at us,” he told the detective.
Rittenhouse had been stationed on the ground, at times offering people medical help. The group heard about people damaging cars on one of the lots with a baseball bat. Rittenhouse went to check it out and as he tried to get back to the building where Black was, he was blocked by police at the intersection.
“He was stuck on that side,” Black said.
Black could not see what happened next, but he heard it: four or five gunshots.
“I thought it was somebody in the crowd shooting like a pistol or it was the riot squad shooting like rubber bullets,” Black said. “I didn’t think it was him.”
Then, his phone rang. He answered and heard Rittenhouse say: “I just shot somebody, I just shot somebody.” The call ended.
The detective asked how Rittenhouse sounded. “Frightened, scared and he’s out of breath,” Black replied.
Black could not see Rittenhouse.
At that time, a crowd chased after the teen, who tripped and fell, and was surrounded by people, according to police and court records. Rittenhouse later told police he was being attacked and fired his gun again. He killed a second man and wounded a third.
After that, Rittenhouse came back into Black’s view as he ran down the road, back toward the intersection where a squad car was parked. Black saw the rifle hanging from Rittenhouse’s neck as he approached a female officer on the passenger side window with his hands up.
“I see her point back and he throws his hands up in the air like he’s mad and then he starts running back to us,” Black said.
Rittenhouse said he ‘aimed center mass,’ acted in self-defense
After being turned away by police, Rittenhouse ran back to the business where Black tried to calm him down.
Rittenhouse told Black the same account that he later gave police: He was attacked and charged at by someone with a baseball bat before firing his weapon. Then, people chased him and he was hit in the head with a skateboard and possibly pieces of wood, which is when he fired again.
“He said he aimed center mass,” Black said. “... He said ‘If I wouldn’t have shot them, I’d probably be dead.’”
Video has captured Rittenhouse being hit with a skateboard, but no footage has emerged related to a baseball bat, and it was not mentioned in a video released by his defense team that portrays Rittenhouse’s actions as self-defense.
“After that, we decided ... we’re going to get in my car, I’m going to drive out of here before anything bad else happens to you and you’re just going to go back home and you’re going to go to the police station,” Black said.
The detective asked Black if Rittenhouse mentioned other people having guns during the confrontation or shooting at him.
No, Black said.
“Knowing Kyle, he’s not really the kind of person that wants to shoot somebody, you know what I mean?” Black said. “He wants to be like a paramedic . ... He just wants to help people, but he gets scared, you know what I mean? I don’t think he’d ever just want to be in a gunfight.”
How Rittenhouse got the rifle: ‘I could have stopped it’
The detective asked Black how Rittenhouse — who at 17 was too young to legally purchase a gun — had the firearm. Neither Rittenhouse nor his mother had a permit for a gun in Illinois.
“He bought it with his money, but I got it for him,” Black said.
Rittenhouse told the Washington Post he used coronavirus stimulus money to buy his gun after he was furloughed from his lifeguard job at a YMCA.
Police records show the weapon was purchased at an Ace Hardware store in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, and was stored at Black’s stepfather’s house in Kenosha until Black and Rittenhouse each took rifles downtown on Aug. 25.
“I don’t know why, the whole time I’m thinking, I’m like, he’s not 18,” Black told the detective. “Like in my head, I could have stopped it, but I know if I would have told him no, he would have threw a fit.”
Black said Rittenhouse had not taken a hunter safety course but had done a little shooting at a range up north. Black knew Rittenhouse for about a year because he was dating Rittenhouse’s sister.
He remembered telling Rittenhouse as they drove back to Antioch: “Dude, I think I’m going to be in more trouble than you because you defended yourself. In all reality, you’re not supposed to have that gun.”
They went to Rittenhouse’s apartment where they met Rittenhouse’s mom and sister. Rittenhouse told his mom what had happened.
The detective asked how his mom responded and Black chuckled.
“At first she was like ... you got a choice: You gotta get out of town or you can turn yourself in to police ... right now,” Black said.
Rittenhouse said he wanted to turn himself in.