Prosecutors show Rittenhouse trial jurors video of protests

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Prosecutors at Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial Wednesday played video for the jury that captured the repeated sound of gunfire in the streets as they began recounting the night Rittenhouse shot three people, two fatally, during a tumultuous demonstration against police brutality.

In one of the bystander videos livestreamed that night by Koerri Washington, a social media influencer from Kenosha, Rittenhouse can be seen running through the frame, carrying a fire extinguisher.

Washington said he followed the 17-year-old Rittenhouse after noticing him earlier that evening.

"He just looked kind of young to me," Washington said. "And he had these gloves on and he was smoking cigarettes and stuff . ... He kind of seemed like an interesting figure, so I just took a mental note of that. It wasn't anything, I wouldn't say malicious, just a young person in a situation."

Shortly after Rittenhouse is seen, the video captures the sound of one gunshot, which was fired into the air by someone in the crowd, according to authorities. The defense has said that that shot made Rittenhouse think he was under attack.

That was followed by four quick shots, which prosecutor Thomas Binger said were Rittenhouse firing at Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man killed that night. After a short pause, three more gunshots can be heard; prosecutors said it is unclear who fired them.

Washington, who was on a skateboard, said that when he heard the shots, he "skated away to safety."

Rittenhouse, now 18, is charged with opening fire with an assault-style rifle during the summer of 2020 in a politically polarizing case that has stirred furious debate over self-defense, vigilantism, the right to bear arms, and the racial unrest that erupted around the U.S. after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other cases like it.

Rittenhouse, a one-time police youth cadet, could get life in prison if convicted.

The teenager traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois after violent 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 property after two nights in which rioters set fires and ransacked businesses.