A Kenosha “protestor” has reportedly admitted firing the first gunshot moments before Kyle Rittenhouse killed two people and wounded a third in what his attorneys are calling self-defense.
The New York Post reports that Joshua Ziminski, 35, and his wife Kelly “both admitted” that he “fired off a ‘warning shot’ into the air.”
The Post obtained the criminal complaint.
Attorneys for Rittenhouse have called the gunshot a “pivotal moment” that left the 17-year-old alleged militia member fearing he had “no way out” as he was chased by protesters with “no way to know who fired that shot.”
On-the-scene reporter Richie McGinniss has also said the sound of the shot was the moment Rittenhouse “went from running away to aiming his weapon” in what the teen’s attorneys insist was self-defense.
Ziminski was investigated by the same detectives assigned to probe Rittenhouse and the now-viral videos of the killings, the complaint said.
The 6’5′ Wisconsin native was seen clearly “holding a black handgun” at large groups of people just before the attack, the officers detailed in the complaint.
Ziminski was also seen with wife Kelly walking toward the Ultimate Gas Station lot with his “arm pointing the gun upward towards the sky,” the document said.
Detectives “observed a muzzle flash emit from the handgun, and heard a gunshot at the same time,” all backed up by another video clip, the court papers said. “Several other people are in the nearby vicinity when the defendant fires the handgun,” the documents said.
Ziminski was reportedly booked last week on charges of disorderly conduct and use of a dangerous weapon.
One of the attorneys representing Rittenhouse tweeted this: