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Then 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse says he opened fire in self-defense after men attacked him during a riot.
Violent protesters swarmed the area in Kenosha, Wisconsin following the police shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake.
Blake, who had a warrant for his arrest on charges of third-degree sexual assault, resisted orders from police. Despite being tasered and scuffling with officers, Blake proceeded to open his driver’s door to an SUV and leaned into it.
Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum. Rittenhouse shot and wounded Anthony Huber and Gaige Grosskreutz.
A judge handed down a major ruling to prosecutors who hope to put Rittenhouse behind bars.
When Rittenhouse’s trial begins on Nov. 1, the judge ruled that prosecutors are not allow to argue Kyle Rittenhouse is affiliated with the Proud Boys.
Prosecutors are also preventing from saying Rittenhouse attacked a woman months before the shootings.
Rittenhouse, who is 18 years old now, is facing multiple counts, including homicide.
Prosecutors claim they have infrared video from an FBI surveillance plane that shows Rittenhouse followed and confronted the first man he shot.
In response to a call on social media to protect businesses in Kenosha, Rittenhouse traveled about 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois on Aug. 25, 2020.
President Donald Trump suggested last year that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense.
Trump said, “He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like.”
“I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed,” Trump added.
Rittenhouse’s mother criticized Joe Biden in November for a campaign ad that used Rittenhouse’s image “to get votes.”
“How dare him [Biden] … do that to my son,” Wendy Rittenhouse told Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
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“That’s my son that he did that to. And I’m not going to back down from him — and [Kyle] is not a White supremacist,” she added.
“He’s not a racist. He is my son and I know him and he is none of that what Joe Biden said,” his mother concluded.
More from Fox News:
During a hearing Friday on several motions, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asked to argue at trial that Rittenhouse subscribes to the far-right group, the Proud Boys, and its philosophies. Binger pointed out that Rittenhouse was seen at a bar with members of the group’s Wisconsin chapter in January and traveled to Miami days later to meet the group’s national president.
Binger also asked the judge to allow evidence that Rittenhouse attacked a woman in June 2020 as she was fighting his sister. He also wants to show jurors video from 15 days before the shootings in which Rittenhouse said he would like to shoot some men he thought were shoplifting from a pharmacy.
Rittenhouse attorney Corey Chirafisi countered that none of the events are relevant to the shootings. Nothing shows Rittenhouse was connected to the Proud Boys on the night of the protest or that the shootings were racially motivated, Chirafisi said, pointing out that Rittenhouse and the men he shot were white.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder agreed with the defense about the June fight and interactions Rittenhouse has had with the Proud Boys. He deferred a decision on the pharmacy video but said he was inclined to exclude it.
It was during discussion about that video that Binger said prosecutors have infrared surveillance footage that he said shows Rittenhouse chasing Rosenbaum, who was the first person Rittenhouse shot.