Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Kyle Rittenhouse to Proceed

Anthony Huber, one of two men shot and killed by Rittenhouse.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled Wednesday that a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the father of a man shot and killed by Kyle Rittenhouse during a protest in 2020 can proceed against Rittenhouse, police officers and others.

The father of Anthony Huber, one of two men shot and killed by Rittenhouse, filed the lawsuit in 2021, accusing officers of allowing for a dangerous situation that violated his son’s constitutional rights and resulted in his death. Anthony Huber’s father, John Huber, also alleged that Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the shootings, conspired with law enforcement to cause harm to protestors. John Huber is seeking unspecified damages from city officials, officers and Rittenhouse.

In allowing the case against Rittenhouse and the others to proceed, the judge said that Anthony Huber’s death “could plausibly be regarded as having been proximately caused by the actions of the governmental defendants.”

WTOP

The ruling puts Anthony Huber’s family “one step closer to justice for their son’s needless death,” said Anand Swaminathan, one of the attorneys for John Huber and Karen Bloom, parents of Anthony Huber.

“The Kenosha officials that created a powder keg situation by their actions tried to claim that they cannot be held accountable for their unconstitutional conduct; that argument was soundly rejected today,” Swaminathan said in a statement.

Rittenhouse was charged with homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangering for killing Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and wounding a third person with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle in the summer of 2020 during a tumultuous night of protests over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer.

The man wounded by Rittenhouse, Gaige Grosskreutz, is also suing Rittenhouse.

NBC 15

In a complaint filed in August 2021, Huber alleged that his son Anthony Huber was killed while attempting to disarm Rittenhouse, who had just shot and killed another man, Joseph Rosenbaum. Rittenhouse, Huber claimed, had been among a group of armed militia members actively encouraged and assisted by the Kenosha Police Department and Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department to intimidate and kill protesters in the aftermath of the police shooting of Black man Jacob Blake. 

The militiamen, Huber alleged in the complaint, were given free reign of the city despite several members explicitly stating their intent to “shoot to kill.” Huber claims police even told militia members that they intended to funnel protesters toward them in an effort to force a confrontation. When Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum, Huber and a third man, Gage Grosskeutz, police took no steps to apprehend him and he was permitted to walk away from the scene. 

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