Murder By Self-Defense
Or, how to get away with murder in a few easy steps
On August 25, 2020, a then 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse armed himself with an AR-15 rifle and traveled from his home in Antioch, Michigan to Kenosha, Wisconsin, ostensibly to help protect a business and render first aid to those who were injured during protests following the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Rittenhouse, a self-described EMT claimed that he was in Kenosha to help anyone who might be injured as a result of the unrest that swept through Kenosha after police shot and paralyzed the unarmed Blake while attempting to take him into custody. During an interview with a reporter, Rittenhouse was seen with his AR-15 slung across his body along with a bag he said contained medical supplies. When asked whether he had any other means to protect himself, Rittenhouse succinctly told the reporter that he had no nonlethal way to defend himself.
Shortly after that interview, shots rang out. In the span of minutes, Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber lay mortally wounded in the streets of Kenosha, and a third man, Gaige Grosskreutz had been seriously injured. Kyle Rittenhouse, who, mere moments beforehand, claimed to have been there to help would turn out to be the person responsible for the ensuing mayhem.
