Lake County Gazette

A judge overseeing Antioch native Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial allowed into evidence video of a police officer encouraging the presence of Rittenhouse and a group of armed civilians.

The court is laying the ground rules for the trial set for Nov. 1.

“If the jury is being told, if the defendant is walking down the sidewalk and doing what he claims he was hired to do and police say 'good thing you’re here,' is that something influencing the defendant and emboldening him in his behavior? That would be an argument for relevance,” Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder said.

Kyle Rittenhouse (left) with his legal bench.

Hours after the video was taken, Rittenhouse killed two men and injured a third.

The judge also ruled the victims could be referred to as “rioters” and “looters” but not “victims” as the trial proceeds.

“The word victim is a loaded, loaded word,” Schroeder said.

Schroeder added that he would allow evidence of bad behavior on the night of their deaths for those who died or were injured. 

"If more than one of them were engaged in arson, rioting, looting, I'm not going to tell the defense you can't call them (victims)," Schroeder said.

The two men were killed in the incident. Joseph Rosenbaum, a registered sex offender who had sexually abused five boys, and Anthony Huber, who had been charged repeatedly with domestic abuse, had extensive criminal backgrounds and were part of a large crowd of rioters destroying businesses in Kenosha, Wis.

Rittenhouse was caught on film being chased by Rosenbaum and Huber. In one piece of footage Rosenbaum throws what looks like a molotov cocktail at the armed Rittenhouse who falls to the ground and is struck in the head by a skateboard-wielding Huber.

The injured man is a member of a socialist movement who said he regrets “not being able to kill” Rittenhouse.

Rittenhouse, then 17, traveled from his home in Antioch to provide armed support for businesses in the area.

He was in Antioch at the time of his arrest and was later held at a juvenile facility in Vernon Hills.

Rittenhouse attended Lakes Community High School. His parents Wendy and Mike were married in Lake County in February 2000. He and his siblings Faith and McKenzie were all born in Lake County.

He was a former participant of the Explorers program at the Grayslake Police Department

“By all evidence I see, Rittenhouse's actions were entirely consistent within his rights of self defense under Wisconsin law,” civil rights attorney Robert Barnes said at the time of the shooting.  

The riots occurred after a police officer shot a man wielding a knife in August 2020.