Critical Witness in Deadly Kenosha Shooting Speaks to CNN
LEMON: Tonight, a critical witness in the deadly shooting during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin is speaking out to CNN. He is describing the moment he first met 17-year-old suspect Kyle Rittenhouse and the chaotic events that followed. CNN's senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin spoke with the witness, Richie McGinnis, who was in Kenosha to cover the protests and wind up being part of the story.</s>DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was the third night of the Kenosha protests --</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): -- and amidst it all, Daily Caller video director Richie McGinnis spotted the newest additions to the complex situation.</s>RICHIE MCGINNIS, WITNESS TO KENOSHA SHOOTING, VIDEO DIRECTOR FOR DAILY CALLER: I saw a bunch of armed individuals. I asked are any of you willing to do an interview, to which Kyle volunteered immediately.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Kyle Rittenhouse, 17 years old, armed with a loaded AR-15-style rifle, casually explained why he came.</s>KYLE RITTENHOUSE, ACCUSED OF SHOOTING: Our job is to protect this business, and part of my job is to also help people.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- said get off the car.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): McGinnis says Rittenhouse was drawing the attention of some of the protesters, but the 17-year-old didn't seem to notice.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Soon after, chaos would erupt. Richie McGinnis would turn to the sound of yelling, see the 17-year-old he had just interviewed being chased by a man later identified as Joseph Rosenbaum.</s>MCGINNIS: You can see me closely behind Rosenbaum and Rittenhouse as they run into that parking lot, and there is a pop (ph) that goes off as we are running into that parking lot. But what was clear to me is that Rittenhouse did not fire that first shot. Rittenhouse is actually still running at the time that happened.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): Prosecutors say what happened next is the reckless homicide of Joseph Rosenbaum. Rittenhouse's attorney says it was self-defense. Richie McGinnis saw the whole thing happened.</s>MCGINNIS: I was there at the exact moment that Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum.</s>GRIFFIN (on camera): Police, in their description, say at some point, Rosenbaum threw a plastic bag at Rittenhouse, missed him, but did you see that?</s>MCGINNIS: I was just off to the side when that happened, and I do recall seeing it go through the air and hearing a crash as it landed.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): McGinnis said Rosenbaum would get close enough to reach for Rittenhouse's gun.</s>MCGINNIS: And I think there's been a lot of confusion as to whether or not Rosenbaum was pursuing Rittenhouse. I did see him running after Rittenhouse, Rittenhouse running away from Rosenbaum, and I did see Rosenbaum reach for the front portion of Rittenhouse's rifle. I was extremely close to them at the time, and I know exactly what I saw with my eyes. He lunged for the gun, and Rittenhouse with the gun in this position dodged around the lunge, and that's when he re-levelled the weapon and fired. In that exact moment as Rittenhouse fired those four shots, I saw Rosenbaum basically go lifeless and fall onto his face. And immediately after those shots were fired, Rittenhouse runs away from the body.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): McGinnis runs towards the dying Rosenbaum. He takes off his shirt, uses it on the wound, yells to the man standing beside him to call 911, not realizing that man was Kyle Rittenhouse. Instead of dialling 911, prosecutors say Rittenhouse calls a friend.</s>MCGINNIS: Probably would have been a terrifying experience if I did notice that it was him given that he had just perpetrated that shooting. But at the time, I was so focused on addressing Rosenbaum's wounds that I didn't even noticed that it was Rittenhouse.</s>GRIFFIN (voice-over): At that moment, Richie McGinnis loses track of Kyle Rittenhouse as McGinnis rushes to get the fatally wounded Rosenbaum to the hospital. But the violence is not over. Rittenhouse is being chased again. Video captures him running, tripping and falling in the street. A pursuer, 26-year-old Anthony Huber with a skateboard in one hand, appears to try to grab his gun, according to the complaint. Rittenhouse fires, killing him. A second pursuer armed with a handgun tries to grab Rittenhouse's weapon. He, too, was hit, wounded in the arm. The 17-year-old who has now shot three protesters retreats slowly. Then with arms raised, walks past approaching police. Rittenhouse's attorney in a statement said, Kyle did nothing wrong. He exercised his god-given, constitutional, common law and statutory law right to self-defense. Richie McGinnis says he is making no judgments. But there's no mistaking he says what he saw.</s>MCGINNIS: My role in this situation is to relay to the public exactly what I saw and heard on that night. And my only concern is that those objective observations will be lost because one side or the other doesn't want to hear what I saw and heard.</s>GRIFFIN (on camera): Though McGinnis says he was told by police he's a very important witness in this case, Don, he has yet to hear from prosecutors or even the defense. And we have yet to hear from Kyle Rittenhouse himself. He remains in custody in Illinois awaiting extradition back to Wisconsin. Don?</s>LEMON: All right, Drew, thank you so much for that. Nineteen-nineteen, 1953 -- 1943, I should say, the 1960s to the 1920s, a history of racial uprisings and demands for equality in this country, and what it all means today in this moment, next.