KENOSHA, Wis. —

Kyle Rittenhouse's defense team rested its case Thursday afternoon and the body of evidence is now closed.

The judge gave the jury Friday off while the prosecution and defense agree on final instructions.

"Even though evidence is closed it is not appropriate to discuss with anybody." Judge Bruce Schroeder told the jury.

Prosecutors said they will ask the judge to allow the jury to consider lesser charges on some of the most serious homicide charges.

Schroeder said they will begin again Monday morning with jury instructions.

That is expected to take up to an hour.

The state will then present its closing arguments.

Prosecutor Thomas Binger said he expected that to take up to two hours.

Defense attorney Mark Richards said he expected his closing arguments to take about 90 minutes.

The state will then have a final rebuttal, which Binger said could take up to an additional 30 minutes.

The judge said he would allow each side to have up to 2.5 hours total for their closing arguments.

He will then draw 12 numbers to decide the final jurors who will decide the case.

Those jurors will then begin their deliberations.

KENOSHA, Wis. —

Jury selection for the Kyle Rittenhouse trial begins Monday.

Community members told sister station WISN 12 News tensions and anxiety run high as the trial approaches.

"I think people are a little nervous about how this is all going to play out," said Tanya McLean, executive director of the Leaders of Kenosha. "No matter what, we want everyone to remain peaceful because this is about getting justice for two young men."

Rittenhouse shot three men in August 2020 during unrest in Kenosha. Gaige Grosskreutz survived, but he killed Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum.

Rittenhouse claims he shot the men in self-defense.

"It is without debate, judge, all three of these people were chasing Kyle Rittenhouse," a defense attorney said at the last court hearing.

Now a jury will review footage and testimony to decide.

The Leaders of Kenosha group told WISN 12 News they believe justice will only be served if Rittenhouse is convicted of murder.

However, they said safety is a number one concern and priority heading into next week.

"Nobody deserves to go to a rally and not come home at night," said Justin Blake, Jacob Blake's uncle. "It doesn’t mean much to your family if you don't make it home."

The August unrest in Kenosha was in response to the Jacob Blake shooting.

"We have to accept the possibility that because of all these factors there's a chance justice won't fully be served," said Hannah Gittings, Huber's partner. "But what we need to remember is that our strength lies in our numbers and our bind."

The Kenosha County Sheriff's Department said there will be increased police presence and security surrounding the courthouse during the trial.

"Our responsibility to public safety is of utmost importance," Sheriff David Beth said in a statement. "These measures are meant to ensure the safety of the public that has legal business in and around the courthouse campus as well as Civic Center employees while maintaining the integrity of the trial."

KENOSHA, Wis. — A Black man who was shot in the back by a white police officer in Wisconsin, triggering several nights of violent protests, says he was prepared to surrender just before the officer opened fire.

Jacob Blake said in an interview broadcast Thursday by ABC’s “Good Morning America” that his pocketknife fell from his pants during a struggle with Kenosha police who were trying to arrest him on Aug. 23 on an outstanding warrant.

He says he picked it up and prepared to put it in his vehicle. Officer Rusten Sheskey told investigators that he feared that Blake was going to stab him, so he opened fire.

A Wisconsin prosecutor last week declined to file charges against Sheskey, concluding he couldn’t disprove the officer’s contention that he acted in self-defense.

KENOSHA — The city of Kenosha, Wisconsin, continues to heal one year after a police officer shot Jacob Blake multiple times, leaving Blake paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life.

Monday marked the one-year anniversary of the shooting, in which Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake several times in the back as Blake walked toward his car.

Sheskey claimed he feared for his life. He was never charged and is back on the job.

Following the shooting, unrest erupted in Kenosha, with damage done to several properties. Exactly one year later, the city is still in the process of rebuilding not only physical property but relationships and trust as well.

Debby Tenuta was out for a walk on Monday morning. She has lived in Kenosha her whole life, and when reflecting back on last summer's unrest, Tenuta said she's still shocked.

"From beginning to end, just a state of shock. And just seeing our beautiful hometown just in a state of such unrest and destruction, sadness, desperation," Tenuta said.

But she feels like she's also starting to see a change in her community.

"Things seem a lot calmer. I think people are more willing to talk and are a little bit more open-minded," she said.

TMJ4

District 10 Alderperson Anthony Kennedy said he clearly remembers the day officers shot Blake. He was riding his bike downtown when he saw several police squad cars zoom by.

"It just started out as a very nice day and changed so quickly," Kennedy said.

He didn't see the video of the police shooting that happened in his district until later that day. In the year since, he says the conversation around policing has continued. He points to a violence interruption program as a positive change.

TMJ4

"There's some things in reference to policing that we're going to talk about, but the K-CORE program that the Kenosha Police Department has set up in reference to doing a violence interruption model," Kennedy said. "Using civilians, using intense training, using people that are well aware of what these elements can be, that's amazing. Would that have happened without the Jacob Blake shooting? I don't know."

And although he's happy to see that kind of progress being made, he doesn't believe the city has healed yet.

"It's still a process. And maybe it's not something that is going to have an endpoint. But it's something that is going to get incrementally better, incrementally better and incrementally better," he said.

Some of those incremental changes can also be seen downtown, where fewer and fewer storefronts are boarded up.

This story was originally published by Sarah McGrew on Scripps station TMJ4 in Milwaukee.

KENOSHA, Wis. —

Prosecutors said accused Kenosha protest shooting suspect Kyle Rittenhouse has violated the conditions of his release.

A judge allowed Rittenhouse, now 18, of Antioch, Illinois, to be released in November on $2 million cash bail.

He's currently awaiting trial for the shooting deaths of two men who were protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

Prosecutors filed a motion Wednesday saying the court was unable to deliver a hearing notice for Rittenhouse at the address he listed as his home on his release paperwork.

The notice was returned to the court because a forwarding address was not known.

Prosecutors wrote in their filing Rittenhouse failed to notify the court of a change of address or telephone number within 48 hours.

They asked the judge to increase Rittenhouse's bail by $200,000 for the violation and issue a warrant for his arrest.

Prosecutors said they were unable to monitor Rittenhouse's whereabouts because he failed to notify them that he moved.

Rittenhouse's cash bond was raised from online supporters.

He has claimed he acted in self-defense.

Prosecutors wrote in their filing Wednesday that Rittenhouse "demonstrated his carefree attitude by going to a bar immediately after his arraignment on Jan. 5, 2021, and drinking three beers in the company of known 'Proud Boys' while flashing white supremacist signs and wearing a 'Free as (expletive) shirt."

Kenosha detectives said they went to the apartment Rittenhouse listed as his address and a man said he had rented the apartment since Dec. 15 and Rittenhouse no longer lived there.

Prosecutors said Rittenhouse failed to correct the address on a document signed Jan. 22.

Rittenhouse's attorney has not yet filed a response to the prosecutor's motion.

His next scheduled court appearance is March 10 but a hearing on the new motion could be held sooner.

If convicted, Rittenhouse faces up to life in prison.