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Rumors about Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager who killed two people and wounded a third during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 2020, spread rapidly online after he was acquitted of all charges on Nov. 19, 2021. This report assessed the validity of popular claims within the below-transcribed copypasta text, which people who agreed with the jury's decision to clear Rittenhouse of any wrongdoing circulated widely on social media and blogs. The accusations ranged from the alleged criminal history of the deceased and wounded (which Snopes investigated thoroughly here) to those people's actions before getting shot to the teenager's purported connection to Kenosha. Ultimately, by making the series of claims, the text attempted to ring the alarm on journalists who covered Rittenhouse's murder trial, accusing them of omitting key facts about him and his victims. (We addressed that erroneous portrayal of the trial's media coverage here.) For the purpose of this fact check, we sought evidence to confirm or deny the validity of assertions presented in the text, which were circulating individually online, as well. They were: In sum, our evidence (which we outlined in detail below) concluded the majority of claims in the viral copypasta text were inaccurate or an extreme exaggeration of facts, while others contained more slivers of truth. For that reason, we issued an overall Mixture rating on this report. The claim that Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, put out a fire in a dumpster heading to a gas station was, at best, a mistaken interpretation of facts or, at worst, a blatant lie to bolster the teenager's reputation. It was true that a videographer recorded someone (a so-called Good Samaritan, according to the recording's caption) using a fire extinguisher to clear a dumpster fire near a gas station during the chaos. However, according to Rittenhouse's legal defense team, that person was a guard — not Rittenhouse — and Rosenbaum had allegedly started the flames. In an 11-minute video released on Sept. 22, 2020, the legal defense team argued via the video's narration: No other details about the unidentified person who extinguished the blaze were available. Rittenhouse's legal team and the teenager himself said he, too, at one point during the chaos toted a fire extinguisher. But he was carrying the item with the intention of putting out car fires, not dumpster fires, The Associated Press reported. We were suspicious of this accusation at first glance for several reasons. First, its wording did not make clear who, exactly, was responsible for giving the alleged directive to cops on streets. Also, the claim also did not explicitly identify whether that unidentified source supposedly told all law enforcement officers in attendance — Kenosha city police, Kenosha County sheriff's deputies, or National Guard troops — or just some to stand down on their commitment to upholding the law. Nonetheless, we considered the departments of defense and homeland security (which oversee the federal government's law enforcement operations), Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, the sheriff's office, the city police department, or Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian as possible sources of the purported demand. [See also from Snopes: No, Ben and Jerry’s Did Not Honor Rittenhouse Shooting Victim with New Flavor] We analyzed news releases from those people or agencies between Aug. 23, 2020, (the day a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, sparking the Aug. 25 protest that devolved into deadly gunfire) to Aug. 26, and we found no evidence of the authority figures telling officers on Kenosha streets to stand down. In fact, the advisories documented officials' decisions to boost the amount of law enforcement officers monitoring police-brutality protesters and armed civilians, like Rittenhouse. For instance, just hours before the shooting, Evers said in a statement: [We] will be increasing the presence of the Wisconsin National Guard to ensure individuals can exercise their right [to protest] safely... Around that same time, the sheriff's office stated in a release: We are not sitting idly, watching the destruction of our community. We're making every effort to make it stop. Just before the deadly altercations, video footage showed law enforcement officers in tactical riot gear telling people to evacuate the area. Lastly, if the claim was true — if a powerful entity or person had indeed told officers not to intervene in dangerous or criminal situations — the directive would be eminently newsworthy. However, a keyword Google search for stand down in news stories about the protests or shootings, including articles written by conservative outlets, such as The Washington Examiner and The Daily Mail, uncovered no such proof. On Nov. 30, 2021, while on the stand in his murder trial, Rittenhouse said his father, grandmother, aunt, uncle, and a cousin indeed live in the lakeside city, located about 40 miles south of Milwaukee. That proved this claim in the copypasta text mostly true — with the caveat that he did not say in that moment that friends of his live in Kenosha, too. His exact wording on the stand, according to the transcription service Rev, was this: The Associated Press categorized this exchange as an apparent attempt to push back against the prosecution portrayal of him as an outsider who went there looking for trouble. Earlier in the trial, 18-year-old Dominick Black took the stand, identifying himself as a friend of Rittenhouse and someone who also lived in Kenosha, USA Today reported. Considering that evidence, it was true that the teenager had at least one friend there, like the copypasta text implied. (Another rumor was circulating at the time of this writing that, at the time of the gunfire, Rittenhouse was attempting to protect a gas station that was owned by his grandparents. That claim was false, and we debunked it here.) During his testimony on Nov. 30, 2021, Rittenhouse told the jury he lived with his mom in Antioch, Illinois — which, according to Google maps, is about a 20-mile, 35-minute drive from Kenosha. That estimation of the trip was slightly longer than what the copypasta text alleged (it claimed a 20 minute difference between the two locations), though its underlying point was accurate: Rittenhouse indeed lived just a drive away from Kenosha at the time of the shootings. His testimony, according to the Rev transcription, was: This claim about Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, kicking Rittenhouse with lethal force was a mistruth. Someone else — a person Rittenhouse's legal defense team referred to as jump kick man during the trial — kicked the teenager in the face, video evidence showed. That happened after Rosenbaum was shot. Cellphone recordings showed Rosenbaum yelling at armed civilians, like Rittenhouse. Moments later, footage showed Rosenbaum chasing Rittenhouse and throwing a plastic bag in his direction. (A New York Times video investigation said that plastic bag held Rosenbaum's belongings from a stay at a hospital for mental health treatment.) Nearby, someone else fired a gun in the air for unknown reasons. Then, Rosenbaum lunged toward the teenager and Rittenhouse fired four times, killing Rosenbaum. After that, video footage showed Rittenhouse talking to someone on the phone and then running away. As he fled, a group of people followed him, yelling Beat him up! and Hey, he shot him! according to cellphone footage. Among them was Anthony Huber, 26, and jump kick man. Rittenhouse tripped and fell to the ground. There, he pointed his rifle up toward the people running toward him. This underlying claim in the viral message was true, though deserved more context. Cellphone video indeed showed Huber hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard and attempting to disarm him after the teenager had fatally shot Rosenbaum. Rittenhouse then opened fire on Huber, killing him. [See also from Snopes: Did Shooting Survivor of Kyle Rittenhouse Say Survivor Pointed Gun First?] According to Rittenhouse's legal defense team, Huber indeed swung the skateboard twice. A lawyer told the jury on Nov. 2, 2021, according to a Rev transcript: [Huber] hit [Rittenhouse] with the skateboard as he was running down Sheridan Road. And then as he’s laying prone on the ground, [Huber] comes in for another hit on his head, and then grabs Kyle Rittenhouse’s firearm to try and take it away from him. On Nov. 8, 2021, the shootings' lone survivor — 27-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz — told a jury that he advanced toward Rittenhouse while pointing a loaded gun before Rittenhouse shot him in the arm. (We already fact-checked this claim here.) Grosskreutz also said on the stand that he, moments earlier, saw Rittenhouse shoot another man (Huber), and that he had no intention of firing his loaded Glock pistol. Grosskreutz said in those split-seconds he believed Rittenhouse was an active shooter and that he himself needed to confront the shooter to prevent more violence. The third person gunned down by Rittenhouse, Grosskreutz, is not a felon. He was once arrested on suspicion of burglary — a felony crime — though a judge dismissed that charge, per Wisconsin Department of Justice’s criminal data. With that motion, the judge cleared Grosskreutz of any guilt or responsibility in the case, removing the accusation entirely from his criminal record. That said, laws that prevent people convicted of felony crimes from owning firearms did not apply to Grosskreutz. On the night of the bloodshed, however, his permit to carry a concealed weapon had expired, according to The Associated Press' coverage of his testimony. He said he was unaware of that at the time, per NPR. The text's claim about 17-year-olds being able to legally possess firearms in Wisconsin — no matter the situation or type of gun — appeared to be another attempt by Rittenhouse's supporters to frame all of his actions on Aug. 25, 2020, as lawful. However, the assertion was a misinterpretation of facts: Wisconsin state law prohibits 17-year-olds from possessing or carrying firearms unless certain circumstances apply, like if they are doing target practice with adult supervision or they are in the military. That was not the case for Rittenhouse when he took a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 downtown to, in his words, help friends protect businesses from destruction. We analyzed the law word-for-word. After a paragraph that defines dangerous weapons as several things, including any firearm, loaded or unloaded, the state statute says this: Any person under 18 years of age who possesses or goes armed with a dangerous weapon is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor. Someone found guilty of that crime could face a maximum of nine months in jail, according to The Associated Press. But, according to Rittenhouse's legal defense team, that prohibition only applies to short-barreled guns such as pistols or sawed-off shotguns — not the type of firearm Rittenhouse used in the shootings. They made that case to Judge Bruce Schroeder, and he sided with them; he dropped the charge accusing Rittenhouse of illegally possessing the rifle. The AP reported: Tom Grieve, a Milwaukee attorney and a former Waukesha County prosecutor, told that news outlet that the exception was drafted to ensure children could hunt, and lawmakers did not envision it could be used to protect minors who carry long guns at protests like the demonstrations in Kenosha. Wisconsin is a hunting state. When people talk about long arms, they’re thinking in the hunting context, he said. The claim about the rifle's journey before the shootings contained some truth and falsehoods. It was true that — according to testimony by Black, the 18-year-old friend of Rittenhouse who was with him the night of the shootings — Rittenhouse did not cross state lines with the firearm. The copypasta text makes that correct point. However, the rightful gun owner did not transport the rifle across states either, contrary to the viral message. [See also from Snopes: No, This Is Not Kyle Rittenhouse Wearing KKK Garb as a Child] As the first witness called by the prosecution, Black testified that he bought the AR-15-style rife for Rittenhouse, who was underage, at a hardware store in northern Wisconsin in spring 2020, according to The New York Times. Black said he used Rittenhouse's money for the purchase and stored the gun at his family's home in Kenosha. Before the sale, Black said Rittenhouse had expressed interest in wanting a rifle during a trip to Black's family's hunting property, USA Today reported. That news outlet continued in a Nov. 2, 2021, story: In other words, according to Black's testimony, Rittenhouse did not ask permission to take the firearm from the family's home that night, though Black did not try to dissuade him from doing so, The New York Times reported. As of this writing, Black is facing two counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a minor, resulting in death. Also, on Nov. 10, Rittenhouse told the jury that the gun had never left Wisconsin before the shootings. At the request of Snopes readers who had seen this accusation emerge shortly after Rosenbaum's death, we obtained numerous court records outlining his criminal history. Based on that evidence, the claim was true: Rosenbaum was indeed convicted of sexually abusing children before Rittenhouse fatally shot him in Kenosha. From the Snopes archives: A New York Times video investigation reported that, before his death, Rosenbaum had just been released from the hospital after undergoing mental health treatment, and his reason for being at the Kenosha demonstration was unknown. The plastic bag that Rosenbaum threw in Rittenhouse's direction, before the teenager opened fire, reportedly held his belongings from the hospital. The claim that Huber was convicted of beating women before his death was an instance in which the viral copypasta misreported facts. Huber was not a convicted women beater — or someone who had been arrested twice for assaulting one or more women in his life. Rather, court records obtained by Snopes showed he was charged with domestic abuse, which is a type of crime that can include beating or assaulting female partners or relatives, as well as other types of fights between two people who know each other. In Huber's case, authorities arrested him in 2012 after they said he threatened his brother and grandmother with a knife and choked the brother, court records showed. And, on another occasion, in 2018, Huber was charged with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor offense, after a fight with his sister at their house. The text also inaccurately reported the unlawful past of Grosskreutz, the lone survivor of the shootings. Firstly, he wasn't convicted of burglary, like the viral message claimed. Instead, he was arrested on suspicion of the crime, but prosecutors later dismissed the charge, according to Wisconsin Department of Justice’s criminal data. Their rationale for dropping the case against Grosskreutz, absolving him of the offense, was unknown. The allegation about assault was also false. Here's what we know about his criminal history:
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