Witness: Kenosha victim was belligerent but no threat

Video of police allowing Rittenhouse to pass, even as people were shouting that he had just shot people, was widely circulated and cited by those who say he got preferential treatment because he is white.

However, Officer Pep Moretti said he drew his weapon and used pepper spray on Rittenhouse, regarding him initially as a threat because he was disobeying commands and advancing with a gun.

Rittenhouse was not arrested at the time. He returned to his home in Antioch, Illinois, and turned himself in the next day.

Moretti described the area at the time as a “war zone," adding: “The city was burning and on fire and we’re just outnumbered and completely surrounded.”

In their testimony, Lackowski and another veteran, former Army infantryman Ryan Balch, both used military terminology that reflected their backgrounds as they spoke about patrolling the streets of Kenosha against protest violence.

Lackowski referred to “areas of occupation,” talked about taking up his “post” in a parking lot, and said he was trained in “shout, shove, show, shoot.”

“You shout, you shove, you show your firearm and you shoot,” Lackowski explained.

Balch used the term “plate carrier,” which he explained means body armor. He gave a detailed explanation of the differences between full metal jacket bullets and hollow points and talked about ensuring the armed citizens in Kenosha that night worked in pairs to protect each other.

According to testimony, Rosenbaum, 36, was unarmed and did not hurt anyone that night. During the clash with Rittenhouse, he threw a clear plastic hospital bag that he had been given to hold his toiletries.

Rosenbaum’s fiancee testified that hours before he was killed, she told him not to go downtown because of the unrest.

“When he left, he said that he would see me in the morning and he was all excited and ‘I love you.’ It was a pleasant visit,” Swart said.

After getting a call from the medical examiner that Rosenbaum was dead, Swart said, she fell to her knees and cried and then found a video online showing him dying: “I broke down and I can’t get that image out of my head.”

In the morning, Swart said, she went to the spot at a car dealership where Rosenbaum lay on the ground after being shot. “And I put my hand in it and my hand was wet with his blood," she said. "And that’s again when I collapsed on the ground.”

Rosenbaum's killing has emerged as one of the most crucial moments that night because it set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later.

Rittenhouse shot and killed Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, who had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward the young man.

Rittenhouse could get life in prison if convicted in the case that has stirred furious debate over self-defense, vigilantism, the right to bear arms and the racial unrest that erupted around the U.S. after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other cases like it.