Detective: Shot fired before Rittenhouse began shooting

by Monique Beals - 11/04/21 1:04 PM ET

A detective testified on Thursday that a shot was fired into the air seconds before Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who fatally shot two people during Black Lives Matter protests in Wisconsin last year, fired his weapon.

Kenosha Detective Martin Howard said at Rittenhouse’s murder trial that a video showed protester Joshua Ziminski firing the first shot into the air. Defense attorneys argued that this shot made Rittenhouse think he was under attack, according to The Associated Press.

Then-17-year-old Rittenhouse fired shots at an August 2020 protest following the police-involved shooting of a 29-year-old Black man, Jacob Blake.

Rittenhouse’s shots fatally wounded both 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum and 26-year-old Anthony Huber. Gaige Grosskreutz, who was 27 years old, survived with injuries.

Howard said he used a stopwatch and analyzed footage of five or six videos from the incident to determine that Rittenhouse fired his first shot 2.5 seconds after Ziminski’s shot, the AP reported.

On Wednesday, a friend of Rittenhouse testified that the teenager was “freaking out” after the shooting.

“I didn’t believe the gunshots were actually his until I got a phone call, and I answered it, and he just said, ‘I shot somebody, I shot somebody,’” Dominick Black said of the call he received from Rittenhouse seconds after the first shooting.

Rittenhouse could face life in prison if he is convicted. He currently faces six counts, including two homicide charges, one attempted homicide charge, two charges of recklessly endangering safety and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

Tags kenosha Kenosha shooting Kyle Rittenhouse rittenhouse trial Wisconsin