Man Shot by Kyle Rittenhouse Sues: Cops Enabled This

Gaige Grosskreutz blames city officials, authorities
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 18, 2021 12:01 AM CDT
Man Shot by Kyle Rittenhouse Sues Police, City of Kenosha
In this Aug. 25, 2020 file photo, Gaige Grosskreutz, top, tends to an injured protester during clashes with police outside the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis.   (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

A man who was shot in the arm by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest last year against police brutality in Wisconsin has filed a federal lawsuit alleging police enabled the violence by allowing an armed militia to have free run of the streets during the demonstration, the AP reports. Rittenhouse shot Joseph Rosenbaum, Anthony Huber, and Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle during the protest in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, after an officer shot Jacob Blake two days earlier. Rosenbaum and Huber died. Grosskreutz was wounded in the arm but survived. Prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, with multiple counts, including homicide. He has argued he fired in self-defense after Rosenbaum and Huber attacked him and Grosskreutz ran up to him armed with a handgun. Rittenhouse's trial is slated to begin next month.

Grosskreutz's lawsuit filed Thursday alleges that Rittenhouse, who lives in Antioch, Ill., had joined white supremacist militia members who had answered a call on social media to travel to Kenosha and protect businesses during the protest. Rittenhouse and Grosskreutz are white; so were Rosenbaum and Huber. The filing maintains police knew the militia was there to hurt people, pointing to social media responses such as “Counter protest? Nah. I fully plan to kill looters and rioters tonight" and “Armed and ready. Shoot to kill tonight.” Regardless, police welcomed them, allowing them to patrol the streets with their guns after curfew. One officer told the militia “we appreciate you guys,” according to the lawsuit. Police later funneled protestors toward the militia, telling members they could take care of them, the lawsuit alleges.

Numerous officers saw Rittenhouse before and after the shootings but never asked him for identification, detained him, or disarmed him, and let him walk past them even though people were yelling that he had shot people and he still had his rifle slung over his chest, according to the lawsuit, which alleges Rittenhouse would have been treated differently had he been Black. The lawsuit alleges Kenosha police, the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, and the city committed multiple constitutional violations, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, equal protection and free speech violations, and failure to intervene. The filing seeks unspecified damages. Attorney Sam Hall, who represents Kenosha County and Sheriff David Beth, said Friday the allegations are false. Huber's family filed a similar federal lawsuit in August alleging police facilitated the shootings. That case is pending. Meanwhile Blake, who was left paralyzed, has sued the officer who shot him, NPR reports. The officer was not criminally charged. (More Kyle Rittenhouse stories.)

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