Kyle Rittenhouse Takes The Stand At His Trial

Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old charged with killing two people and wounding a third, took the stand Wednesday at his homicide trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, claims he acted in self-defense during protests against police violence in August 2020.

Rittenhouse broke into tears when his attorneys were questioning him about why he fatally shot the first victim. "I didn't do anything wrong, I was defending myself," he told the court.

But the prosecution attempted to discredit the core of his defense by questioning why a teenager who illegally possessed an AR-15 style rifle would feel that his life was in danger. Thomas Binger, the lead prosecutor, tried to paint Rittenhouse as an armed threat.

"You're telling us that you felt like you were about to die, right? But when you point the gun at someone else, that's going to make them feel like they're about to die, right? That's what you wanted him to feel," Binger said.

Flustered and on the verge of tears for the second time, Rittenhouse claimed one of the victims could have "ran away instead of trying to take my gun from me. It didn't stop him."

The trial was stopped twice after the prosecutor's line of questioning angered the judge. "I said that you were over the line or close to or over the line commenting on the defendant's pretrial silence, which is a well-known rule," said Bruce Schroeder, of the Kenosha County Circuit Court.

Rittenhouse was charged as an adult with two counts of first-degree homicide and one count of attempted homicide. He also faces charges of recklessly endangering the safety of two other victims, and possessing a weapon while under the age of 18.