One of the prosecution’s star witnesses in the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has a long criminal rap sheet, and some charges he faced were dropped just before the trial began last month, according to a report.
Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot and injured by Rittenhouse during a riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, was called by the state in its attempt to prove that Rittenhouse acted maliciously.
Prosecutors portrayed Grosskreutz, 28, as an upstanding citizen who was serving as a paramedic during the riot.
Grosskreutz admitted during cross-examination that Rittenhouse only shot him in the arm after he drew a gun on the teen.
WISCONSIN—Rittenhouse trial:
Defense: “With your arms up in the air, he never fired?”
Gaige Grosskreutz: “Correct.”
Defense: “It wasn’t until you pointed your gun at him, advanced on him, with your gun…pointed at him that he fired?”
Grosskreutz: “Correct”.#KyleRittenhouse pic.twitter.com/BIU5K1aV6V
— Bree A Dail (@breeadail) November 8, 2021
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Grosskreutz also admitted to Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger that he did not have a valid gun permit at the time of the incident.
Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot in the arm by #Rittenhouse, is asked if I he had a permit to carry the firearm he had when he rushed toward the teen. “I did,” he responds. He is asked if the permit was actually valid.
“It was not,” he answers. #Kenosha pic.twitter.com/honc2xnA9F
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) November 8, 2021
A new report claims Grosskreutz has a criminal record spanning more than a decade.
He has been accused of burglary, drink driving, carrying a loaded gun while intoxicated, domestic abuse, prowling and trespassing, the Daily Mail reported.
He also has a history of disobeying and lying to police.
Six days before he testified about his encounter with Rittenhouse, a DUI charge against him was dropped on a technicality, according to the Mail.
This prevented the defense team from questioning Grosskreutz about his criminal past. The jury likewise heard nothing about it.
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Nine days before he was shot by Rittenhouse, Grosskreutz was arrested for filming vehicles in a police parking lot in West Allis, Wisconsin, the Mail reported.
“Gaige made clear his anti law enforcement views,” officer Ryan Stuettgen wrote in the police report of the incident.
In 2012, Grosskreutz was arrested in New Berlin, Wisconsin, for allegedly burglarizing a home and stealing three video game consoles. The police report of the incident noted that officers suspected Grosskreutz of being dishonest with them.
In 2010, Grosskreutz was allegedly involved in an incident in which he hit his own grandmother in the face and smashed a lamp against a wall.
The jury in the Rittenhouse trial began deliberations on Tuesday morning following closing arguments on Monday.