Defense calls Rittenhouse to the stand at his murder trial

By SCOTT BAUER, TAMMY WEBBER and AMY FORLITI
Associated Press

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The defense has called Kyle Rittenhouse to the stand at his trial on charges of killing two men and wounding a third during a night of turbulent protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The former police youth cadet was 17 when he went to Kenosha during the summer of 2020 with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from the damaging protests that broke out over the wounding of a Black man by a white Kenosha police officer. Prosecutors used 5½ days of testimony to try to portray Rittenhouse as the aggressor on the night of the shootings. But the prosecution’s witnesses often bolstered the young man’s claim of self-defense. Rittenhouse, now 18, could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.