Kenosha, Wisconsin Shooting Survivor Sues City
A survivor of the August 2020 mass shooting in Kenosha has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin against the city, county, and law enforcement agencies, claiming that the authorities that were supposed to protect him failed to do their jobs.
The City of Kenosha, Kenosha County, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth, former Police Chief Daniel Miskinis, interim Police Chief Eric Larsen, and unnamed officers were named as parties in the civil litigation.
CNN reported on Friday that Gaige Grosskreutz – the only person to live through the massacre that killed two people – alleges that “Kenosha law enforcement officers and white nationalist militia persons discussed and coordinated strategy,” according to court documents obtained by the news outlet.
“It was not a mistake that Kyle Rittenhouse would kill two people and maim a third on that evening. It was a natural consequence of the actions of the Kenosha Police Department (KPD) and Kenosha Sherriff’s Department (KCSD) in deputizing a roving militia to ‘protect property’ and ‘assist in maintaining order,'” the filing states.
“Miskinis and Beth acknowledged that the KPD and KCSD were aware that that pro-militia, armed individuals intended to patrol and then did patrol downtown Kenosha” and “made any attempt to dissuade … armed individuals from showing up in Kenosha to patrol the streets,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants did nothing to stop Rittenhouse’s illegal conduct. …They did not arrest him, detain him, or question him even after he had killed two people and nearly killed Grosskreutz. Instead, Defendants deputized Rittenhouse and other armed individuals, conspired with them, and ratified their actions by allowing them to patrol the streets armed illegally with deadly weapons and shoot and kill innocent citizens.”
Grosskreutz has also accused Kenosha of harboring a favorable bias toward indicted shooter Kyle Rittenhouse because he is white.
Rittenhouse would have been treated “much differently” if he were Black, Grosskreutz argues. “If a Black child had shot three citizens with an assault rifle and was seen walking away from the scene of the shooting with the assault rifle in hand, while other citizens yelled he was an active shooter, he would have been shot dead.”
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