On August 25, 2020, during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum was shot and killed in the parking lot of a used car dealership. Rosenbaum had been released from a psychiatric hospital earlier that day and was unarmed at the time. Witnesses described him as acting belligerently and say he threatened a group that included 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who had traveled from Antioch, Illinois, carrying an AR-15 style rifle.

Accounts from the scene say another protester fired a handgun into the air, then Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse and threw a plastic bag at him. Testimony described Rosenbaum lunging and reaching toward the barrel of the rifle; four shots were fired at close range, striking Rosenbaum in the groin, hand, thigh, back, and head. Rittenhouse left the scene and was arrested the next day in Illinois and charged in connection with Rosenbaum’s death.

What details about that night might still help clarify how the confrontation began and escalated?