Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old accused of killing two people and injuring a third, testified in his homicide trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Wednesday. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the incident, claims he acted in self-defense during August 2020 demonstrations against police brutality.

The teenager cried and gasped for breath on the witness stand,as he was asked to recall the events leading up to his shooting of three men in the wake of demonstrations in Kenosha. Mr. Rittenhouse said that one of them had chased him into a parking lot. He said the man lunged at him.

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I defended myself,” he testified.

Rittenhouse told jurors that he had no option because “the person was attacking me.”

The prosecution, on the other hand, sought to undercut the core of his case by asking why a teenager with an AR-15 type gun unlawfully in his possession would believe his life was in danger. The primary prosecutor, Thomas Binger, attempted to portray Rittenhouse as an armed menace.

“I remember his hand on the barrel of my gun,” he testified after the judge took a break to allow Mr. Rittenhouse, whose mother could be heard sobbing in the courtroom audience, to compose himself sufficiently to speak.

Kyle Rittenhouse broke down crying while testifying in his homicide trial on Wednesday, November 10.

Joseph Rosenbaum, according to Rittenhouse, was unarmed when he ran at the youngster. In an attempt to deter Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse said he pointed his weapon at him, despite knowing that aiming a firearm at someone is risky.

“He was chasing me, I was alone, and he threatened to kill me earlier that night. I didn’t want to have to shoot him,” Rittenhouse testified. “I pointed it at him because he kept running at me and I didn’t want him to chase me.”

He expressed concern that Rosenbaum, who did not touch his body that night, might grab his pistol and kill others.

“If I would have let Mr. Rosenbaum take my firearm from me, he would have used it and killed me with it and probably killed more people if I would have let him get my gun.’’

Rittenhouse stated he was guarding private property in Kenosha and delivering first aid when his deadly encounters with Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, occurred on Aug. 25, 2020.

“You’re telling us that you felt like you were about to die, right? But when you point the gun at someone else, that’s going to make them feel like they’re about to die, right? That’s what you wanted him to feel,” Binger said.

Rittenhouse said one of the victims could have “ran away instead of trying to take my gun from me. It didn’t stop him.”

The accused, who had been largely silent for months, delivered his first comprehensive, public account of what transpired in downtown Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020, as prosecutors questioned his veracity and why he had even entered the scene that night.

After testifying for the most of Wednesday, Rittenhouse stepped down from the witness stand. He was the defense’s sixth witness, and attorneys indicated they intended to call many more people before the trial began on Thursday.

“The person who attacked me first and threatened to kill me twice,” Rittenhouse, who is charged with two counts of homicide, said of Rosenbaum.

He added that Rosenbaum used the f-word multiple times in verbally confronting him.

“He screamed, ‘If I catch any of you f—ers alone, I’m going to f—— kill you,” Rittenhouse quoted the victim as saying. “He said, ‘I’m going to cut your f—— hearts out.’ ”

The trial was halted twice after the prosecutor’s line of inquiry enraged the judge. “I said that you were over the line or close to or over the line commenting on the defendant’s pretrial silence, which is a well-known rule,” Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder said.

After the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer, Rusten Sheskey, Kenosha exploded in protests, riots, and burning for more than 14 months. Mr. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time and resided in Antioch, Ill., came downtown with other armed people on the third night of the turmoil, saying they wanted to help safeguard property.