A former spokesperson for Kyle Rittenhouse says he became disillusioned with his ex-client after learning that he had sent text messages pledging to “fucking murder” shoplifters outside a pharmacy before later shooting two people to death during racial justice protests in Wisconsin in 2020.

Dave Hancock made that remark about Rittenhouse – for whom he also worked as a security guard – on a Law & Crime documentary that premiered on Friday. The show explored the unsuccessful criminal prosecution of Rittenhouse, who killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

As Hancock told it on The Trials of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 90-minute film’s main subject had “a history of things he was doing prior to [the double slaying], specifically patrolling the street for months with guns and borrowing people’s security uniforms, doing whatever he could to try to get into some kind of a fight”.

Hancock nonetheless said he initially believed Rittenhouse’s claims of self-defense when he first relayed his story about fatally shooting Rosenbaum and Huber. Yet that changed when he later became aware of text messages that surfaced as part of a civil lawsuit filed by the family of one of the men slain in Kenosha demanding wrongful death damages from Rittenhouse.

    • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      9
      ·
      2 months ago

      It would have made zero difference. Actions speak louder than words, and what he did that day directly contradicts this ‘message’.

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        He said he wanted to shoot a bunch of people for imagined slights, and he went on to do exactly that.

        • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          2 months ago

          He went on to shoot people for imagined slights?

          There is video, goofball. Three people attempted to murder him, unprovoked.

          It’s not imagined that Rosenbaum screamed a literal death threat at him and then chased him down and tried to take his weapon to make good on said threat.

          It’s not imagined that Huber tried to kill Rittenhouse with full swings of a skateboard (over 10 pounds on average, inarguably a lethal weapon when swung at the head) to the head, one of which connected.

          It’s not imagined that Grosskreutz pointed his handgun (by the way, actually illegally possessed, unlike Rittenhouse’s rifle) at Rittenhouse’s head, before Rittenhouse raised his rifle and shot his arm (having a faster reaction time literally saved his life in that instance). Hell, he literally admitted to that being the sequence of events in court.

          The only imagining is happening on your side. The facts contradict your narrative, that’s why you have no choice but to grasp at straws and lie when you’re confronted by them.

          • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            2 months ago

            Three people attempted to murder him, unprovoked.

            I would certainly consider roaming the streets openly wielding a firearm to fall under a reasonable definition of “provocation”. It is unreasonable to expect a person on the street to distinguish between an active shooter and a “good guy with a gun”.

            It’s almost like the “good guy with a gun” is an idiotic idea which turns situations into powder kegs of confusion and violence where everyone thinks they’re the good guy and bullets start flying.

            • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              arrow-down
              4
              ·
              2 months ago

              I would certainly consider roaming the streets openly wielding a firearm to fall under a reasonable definition of “provocation”.

              Who cares what you would consider provocation? The fact is no one there on that day felt provoked by it. No one reacted negatively to his arrival while obviously visibly armed, nor his walking around visibly armed, for hours, while he handed out water bottle and gave first aid to people. And why is it that the first person to react negatively to him was a maniac who pissed because the dumpster fire he set was extinguished? His rage had literally nothing to do with Rittenhouse’s weapon.

              If the mere existence of the gun was so provocative, explain why no one there gave a shit about it. Reconcile your assertion with the facts, if you can.

              It is unreasonable to expect a person on the street to distinguish between an active shooter and a “good guy with a gun”.

              That’s not really relevant, because Huber and Grosskreutz’s actions are completely nonsensical regardless of whether they assessed Rittenhouse as one or the other accurately. They both decided to try and kill Rittenhouse, and he prevented them from doing so, absolutely justified in defending his life against two more attempted murders, after already being forced to do so once, with Rosenbaum.

              Not to mention that Rittenhouse was moving TOWARD the police line to report what had just happened with Rosenbaum, verbally announcing that he was doing so, when the other two decided they wanted to kill him instead.

              • agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                2 months ago

                The fact is no one there on that day felt provoked by it.

                You and I have different definitions of the word “fact”.

                • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  arrow-down
                  3
                  ·
                  2 months ago

                  Fact: On all of the video there is of him preceding Rosenbaum’s attack, no one is reacting in a way that indicates that they feel provoked by his armed presence.
                  Fact: You’re imbuing this magical inherent provocation based on literally nothing. It’s what you want to be true, so that you can rationalize your baseless narrative.

  • 58008@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    2 months ago

    The prosecution team was 100% to blame for this little shit not getting what he deserved. I hope the litigants in the civil suit do a better job, but to be honest, they barely even need to try. Even I could put on a suit and walk in off the street and convince the jury of his liability in those killings. And that’s just using the evidence we had back in 2020. With these text messages, I could call it in over Zoom while driving around delivering pizzas for 40 minutes.

    • ObjectivityIncarnate@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      21
      ·
      2 months ago

      Even I could put on a suit and walk in off the street and convince the jury of his liability in those killings.

      ‘yes your honor, he’s liable because he dared to put out that fire, and then ran away when the guy who said it screamed “I’m going to kill you” and charged at him, and then tried to wrestle the rifle out of his hand.’

      Buffoon.

  • nutsack@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    10
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    what really did it for me was his ADHD pacing around in circles while the riot vehicles rolled in. this was a manic little kid, way too excited to be holding a gun.

  • darth_tiktaalik@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    2 months ago

    Why this specific instance of Rittenhouse exposing himself as bloodthirsty when there were many more instances before it?

    Is there some “fifty flags” rule before you can say they’re planning to murder people?

  • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    21
    ·
    2 months ago

    Let’s be honest. Many, if not most, of us talked big when we were that age. The texts are just that. This is a kid with an inferiority complex trying to be seen as a tough guy. His actions that night were more like the coward he is inside. Which is not meant as an insult really. But he ran away. And to me he really did fire in the legal definition of self defense. The crime here is that he was there and armed at all. And further that society failed to help this kid find productive ways to prove his worth to himself. Kids aren’t born like this.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      2 months ago

      And then we all grabbed a gun and actually killed people.

      Oh wait.

      And no. There is no self defense claim when you instigated it.

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        Sure there is. If you are in a fist fight, and the other guy draws a gun and shoots. Now you can fire back in self defense. And the law in the state he was in doesn’t have any mention of “not if you instigate it”. You are welcome to your opinion, but it doesn’t change the law, and really has nothing to do with my comment. Your motivations are a bit like Kyle, you just needed to be seen making a statement, even if it had nothing to do with the comment you replied to.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          2 months ago

          That sounds a lot like you instigated a fight and had ragrets when the “find out” part came around. If self defense is two people justified for shooting at each other then we live in insane land and nothing matters anymore because you can just walk into a store and self defense yourself some groceries. “I just wanted groceries and the clerk was mean to me when I tried to leave!”

          Except of fucking course not because we don’t live in insane land and all the self defense laws have exceptions for committing crime. Like instigating a fight specifically to murder someone.

    • pingveno@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      2 months ago

      Sure, to a point. But not about murdering people. And we didn’t then go and do just that. It shows some forethought. There have been other shooters who made posts before hand more or less admitting to wanting to provoke people, then claim self defense. They did not get to claim self defense.

      • Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        2 months ago

        It can influence a jury, sure. But it isn’t proof of much of anything other than his poor mental state, and how brainwashed he was.