A man shot and seriously wounded by Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin last year recounted terrifying moments leading up to the near-fatal interaction, telling jurors Monday he thought he “was going to die.”
Gaige Grosskreutz, a licensed paramedic from suburban Milwaukee, said he went to Kenosha in hopes of treating anyone hurt during the Aug. 25, 2020, protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
When he approached Rittenhouse, armed with an AR-15-style weapon, Grosskreutz, 27, told jurors that he had his own Glock pistol in one hand and a cellphone in the other.
His arms were raised shortly before Rittenhouse shot him in the right bicep. Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked Grosskreutz why he didn’t shoot first.
“That’s not the kind of person that I am. That’s not why I was out there,” Grosskreutz said. “That’s not why I spent, up until that point, my time, my money, my education, providing care for people. That’s not who I am. That’s definitely not somebody I would want to become.”
He added that he “tried to attempt a non-lethal way to end that interaction.”
Prosecutors want to show that Rittenhouse had no justification gunning down Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and shooting Grosskreutz.
Video of the scene showed Grosskreutz just a few feet away from Huber when he was gunned down.
“After murdering Anthony Huber … I was very close to the defendant and I thought there was a high likelihood that I would be shot myself,” Grosskreutz said.
Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder told jurors to disregard Grosskreutz use of the term “murdering.” Schroeder had already barred lawyers from calling any of the people shot by Rittenhouse as “victims.”
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Under cross-examination on Monday, defense lawyer Corey Chirafisi accused Grosskreutz of downplaying, in early police interviews, the fact that he was armed the moment Rittenhouse shot him.
“You omitted the fact that you ran up on him and had a Glock pistol in your hand. You left that out?” Chirafisi asked.
“Correct,” Grosskreutz answered, explaining that that interview happened while he was on medication just after surgery. “After the defendant had shot me, I had just gotten out of surgery when the Kenosha Police officers had arrived. I had just gone through one of the most traumatic experiences of my life.”
The defense also brought up Grosskreutz’s lawsuit against Wisconsin authorities, inferring that a criminal conviction against Rittenhouse would help his civil action.
Binger and Chirafisi used various videos and still images, sparring over where Grosskreutz’s hands were positioned at the moment Rittenhouse opened fire.
At one point, Binger directed Grosskreutz out of the witness chair and had him demonstrate to jurors how he approached Rittenhouse. Grosskreutz said he was not holding his gun in a position to fire.
“Is that the way you hold and point a gun when you’re going to shoot it?” Binger asked.
“No,” Grosskreutz said.
Grosskreutz and Rittenhouse were among the scores of people on the streets of Kenosha after the shooting of Blake, a Black man, by a white police officer on Aug. 23, 2020.
The unrest in Kenosha drew Rittenhouse, then 17, across state lines, where he allegedly took the AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle to protests.
Kenosha is about 20 miles northeast of Rittenhouse’s home in Antioch, Illinois, and 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
Samira Puskar contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
