The paramedic who was seriously wounded last year by Kyle Rittenhouse said Thursday that he was unnerved watching his "would-be murderer" on the witness stand.
The man, Gaige Grosskreutz, the only survivor of three people Rittenhouse shot Aug. 25, 2020, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, watched Rittenhouse, 18, testify in his defense Wednesday and said it was an emotional experience.
"Well, I think any time you see your would-be murderer on the stand, it’s emotional," Grosskreutz said on ABC's "Good Morning America."
Rittenhouse sobbed uncontrollably on the stand, prompting the judge to call for a recess at one point. He testified that he was protecting private property in Kenosha and providing first aid before his fatal confrontations with Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36.
Protestors filled the streets of Kenosha that week after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Grosskreutz, a paramedic from suburban Milwaukee, was in Kenosha on Aug. 25 last year offering medical services.
Grosskreutz had a gun in hand when he approached Rittenhouse but said he wasn't threatening Rittenhouse when he was shot.
"I think the most important thing to remember is that Kyle Rittenhouse was an active shooter. He murdered two men, and he attempted to murder me," Grosskreutz said.
Rittenhouse's defense, which is claiming self-defense, rested late Thursday afternoon.
Use-of-force expert John Black, a military veteran and former sheriff's deputy, was one of the defense's final witnesses.
Black said video of Rittenhouse shooting the three men doesn't fully show what threats he faced that night.
Black asked jurors to focus on different points of the courtroom while also trying to watch him drop a pair of glasses out of his hand.
“We have the luxury of hindsight. We have the luxury of going back and taking a single frame," Black told jurors.
"But we have to remember what was the limitations of the actors involved," he said. "What were they looking at? What could they even have seen? What were they attending to? What was happening to them?”
The judge scheduled closing arguments for Monday, with jurors hearing 2½ hours from each side before they begin deliberations.
