Witness recounts moments leading up to being shot by Rittenhouse
Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during protests in Kenosha, Wis., said that “I was never trying to kill the defendant” on the night of their encounter in August 2020. Grosskreutz added, “I was trying to preserve my own life.” Rittenhouse is on trial for killing two people and wounding Grosskreutz during riots that erupted in Kenosha after Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer. Video is courtesy of Court TV.
Video Transcript
- So after you raised your hands like this, you saw the defendant rerack the weapon?
GAIGE GROSSKREUTZ: Correct.
- What did you think was going to happen?
GAIGE GROSSKREUTZ: In my experiences and in my inference in that moment, after the defendant had pointed his weapon at me and I had put my hands in the air, reracking the weapon, in my mind, meant that the defendant pulled the trigger while my hands were in the air. But the gun didn't fire. So then by reracking the weapon. I inferred that the defendant wasn't accepting my surrender.
- Did you feel that he was going to point the gun and shoot at you again?
GAIGE GROSSKREUTZ: Yes.
- What did you do then?
GAIGE GROSSKREUTZ: So after the defendant had reracked his weapon with the rifle still aimed at me, in that moment, I felt that I had to do something to try and prevent myself from being killed or being shot or killed. And so I decided that the best course of action would to be to close the distance between the defendant and I. And then, you know, from there, I don't know. I mean, if it meant trying what Anthony had just tried, wrestling the gun, detaining the defendants-- I don't know because I never had an opportunity.
I do know, though, I was never trying to kill the defendant. That was never, never something that I was trying to do. In that moment, I was trying to preserve my own life. But doing so, while also taking the life of another is not something that I'm capable of or comfortable in doing. That goes against almost a lifelong ethical code that I've lived by in regards to-- in regards to medicine.
