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Prosecutors at Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial Wednesday played video for the jury that captured the repeated sound of gunfire in the streets as they began recounting the night Rittenhouse shot three people, two fatally, during a turbulent demonstration against police brutality.

During the protests and rioting that followed the shooting of Jacob Blake by a Kenosha Police officer in August 2020, Koerri Washington — known online as Koerri Elijah — became well-known in the community for live-streaming what was happening.

Kenosha residents followed Washington online as he moved through the city on his skateboard, streaming video live from his phone, accompanied by calm descriptions of what he was seeing.

On the witness stand Wednesday during the second day of testimony in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, the jury watched — along with Washington — video he took at the Ultimate Gas Station on Sheridan Road and 60th Street, where people had gathered on the night of Aug. 25, 2020, after police pushed protesters away from Civic Center Park and south down Sheridan Road.

Rittenhouse shot three men, killing Anthony Huber and and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha last year. The 18-year-old from Antioch, Illinois, has argued he fired in self-defense after the men attacked him.

Among the people in the crowd, and captured on the video, were all the principal subjects of the Rittenhouse case. There was Rittenhouse, standing with his rifle on his chest; Huber, walking by holding his skateboard; Grosskreutz, walking by with a backpack over his shoulders and wearing a baseball cap that said “paramedic”; and Rosenbaum, who Washington said had been acting erratically.

Noticed Rittenhouse

While being questioned by Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger during his testimony Wednesday, Washington said that he had taken note of Rittenhouse during the night of Aug. 25, 2020.

“When I arrived on the scene, I took note of those people who were around me, especially people who were armed,” Washington said. “He looked young to me. He had these gloves on, and he was smoking cigarettes. ... It wasn’t anything malicious, it was mainly the gloves.”

During cross examination, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked about Washington’s statement regarding taking note of Rittenhouse.

“People were saying people were going to randomly kill people," Washington said. "They were saying they were going to target Black people. You can all see I’m a Black man."

Washington indicated he didn’t know if any of those rumors were true, but they made him take notice of certain people in the crowd that night.

“People who were acting erratic, like Mr. Rosenbaum, or things that stood out, like chain smoking with gloves on,” Washington said.

In photographs from that night, Rittenhouse appears to be wearing blue latex gloves. Rittenhouse had characterized himself to people during the night as an EMT, and was carrying a first-aid bag during the night.

“Other than smoking with gloves on, was there anything that Kyle Rittenhouse did that was in any way erratic and threatening? Use any terms you want,” Chirafisi asked Washington.

“The only thing I could say — and maybe, to be fair, this is just my opinion — he just seemed like he was young," Washington said. "And he didn’t know what was going on, but because he was smoking so much. ... I’m not saying I was feeling like this was a guy that was going to mow a bunch of people down or anything like that, I was just like, ‘Oh, I’ll take a note of that.'"

Chirafisi followed up, asking whether Washington noticed anything erratic about Rittenhouse’s behavior, besides smoking with gloves on.

“Chain smoking cigarettes is kind of a behavioral thing,” Washington answered. “I suppose you could say, nervous was a fair way to say it. He seemed nervous in the situation.

"But I suppose a lot of people were nervous.”

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder's unique style is in the spotlight as he presides over one of the biggest trials of his career, Kyle Rittenhouse's homicide trial

Video largely uneventful

Although defense attorneys have characterized the night the shooting occurred as chaotic and violent, the lengthy video the prosecution played Wednesday taken by Washington at the Ultimate Gas Station that night was largely uneventful. There were some rocks thrown, according to Washington, and two dumpsters were set on fire and pushed into the street. Defense attorneys say the dumpsters were set alight by Rosenbaum and Joshua Ziminski of Racine, who later fired a gunshot into the air moments before Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum.

But most of the video shows people standing around aimlessly. There is some shouting, some chanting and some obscenities yelled.

“There wasn’t much happening at the time, it was fairly calm, most of the people were just standing around at this point,” Washington said.

Then Rittenhouse is seen on the video running from the gas station parking lot headed south on Sheridan Road and holding a fire extinguisher in one hand. According to testimony from Rittenhouse’s friend, Dominick Black, on Tuesday, Rittenhouse had just received a phone call from from someone in the group of armed people who had been guarding the Car Source on Sheridan and 59th Street asking him to head south to the third Car Source lot at 63rd Street, because there were people setting fires there.

"I said, 'All right, let’s see what’s happening,'" Washington testified, and he followed Rittenhouse south on his skateboard, filming along the way.

Passes Rittenhouse

Washington’s video shows his vantage point as he skates along Sheridan. He passes Rittenhouse and captures video of Daily Caller reporter Richard McGinniss, who witnessed the shooting and is also on the witness list. McGinniss is beginning to run south, and Washington's video also shows Rosenbaum walking south, his shirt tied around his head.

Washington is taking video near the 63rd Street Car Source lot, where he says people are smashing windows on vehicles.

“There’s a large crowd over here smashing SUVs,” Washington can be heard saying on the video.

There’s then the sound of a gunshot, followed almost immediately by four shots in rapid succession.

“We have just heard the shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum,” Binger said.

Defense attorney Mark Richards objects.

“There was a first shot,” he said.

That shot was fired by Ziminski, who Richards said in his opening statement had been with Rosenbaum during the night and who had been setting fires. Binger acknowledged that Ziminski fired the first shot.

There’s also additional gunfire after the shots that killed Rosenbaum. Binger said those are not fired by Rittenhouse.

“Mr. Washington, after you heard the gunshots, what did you do personally?" Binger asked.

“I skated away to find safety," Washington said. "... I kind of found a position behind a retaining wall and tried to film behind the retaining wall.”

Washington’s video shown in court ended there and did not capture the shootings of Huber and Grosskreutz.

Testimony Wednesday afternoon is expected to include a detective working on the case, a militia member who had spent time with Rittenhouse that night and a relative of Huber.

During the third day of the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder​ speaks about the 2008 homicide trial of Mark Jensen, who was accused of poisoning and smothering his wife.

This article originally ran on kenoshanews.com.

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