Kyle Rittenhouse’s Mom Says Son Would Be Dead ‘If He Didn’t Have That Gun’

Kyle Rittenhouse's mother, left, and sister are seen during Rittenhouse's trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis, on Nov. 2, 2021. Sean Krajacic/Pool/The Kenosha News via AP

Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother Wendy Rittenhouse declared that her son would be dead if he wasn’t armed on the night of Aug. 25, 2020, when he shot two people and wounded another amid riots and protests.

Rittenhouse was 17 when he shot three people, killing two of them, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The teen faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him—first-degree intentional homicide—which is Wisconsin’s top murder charge.

During the incident, two men, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, were killed. Another, 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz, and who was armed with a handgun, was shot in the arm.

Rittenhouse previously said he went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to protect property from rioters amid days of unrest and violence after the officer-involved shooting of Jacob Blake. The riots and protests were part of broader unrest sparked by the police-involved death of George Floyd earlier that year.

“A lot of people shouldn’t have been there,” Wendy Rittenhouse told NBC about the demonstrations and riots in Kenosha. “He [brought] that gun for protection, and to this day, if he didn’t have that gun, my son would’ve been dead,” she argued.

Kyle Rittenhouse waits for his motion hearing to begin with one of his attorneys, Natalie Wisco, at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Oct. 25, 2021. Sean Krajacic/AP Photo

When her son testified during the trial, Wendy Rittenhouse said that “Kyle told his side of the story, and it was the truth,” reported CBS News. And if Kyle “had to do it all over again, he probably would not go down to Kenosha.”

“Kyle’s nature is to help people,” she explained.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger painted a different picture, arguing that Rittenhouse fled the scene following the shooting.

“The defendant fled the scene of the dead body of Joseph Rosenbaum without stopping to offer any aid whatsoever,” he said.

In closing arguments Monday, Binger further asserted that Rittenhouse was a “wannabe soldier,” and was “looking for trouble that night.”

He told the jury: “You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one who brought the gun, when you are the one creating the danger, when you’re the one provoking other people.”

But Rittenhouse’s lawyer, Mark Richards, asserted that Rosenbaum was a “crazy person” who was “hell-bent on causing trouble that night” and chased after Rittenhouse unprovoked.

“Mr. Rosenbaum was shot because he was chasing my client and going to kill him, take his gun and carry out the threats he made,” Richards stated, adding that Rittenhouse never pointed his gun before he was chased.

“It didn’t happen,” he said.

An enlarged image that prosecutors alleged shows Rittenhouse pointing his gun at protesters doesn’t prove anything, Richards also said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.