Infamous New York “Subway Vigilante,” Bernie Goetz says the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is a politically motivated sham perpetrated to “satisfy a mob.”
The stunning murder trial for Kyle Rittenhouse — the young man facing charges for fatally shooting two people and wounding a third in Kenosha, Wisconsin, is “a sham at best,” Goetz told Fox News Digital.
Goetz, who, like Rittenhouse, argued self-defense after shooting four black teenagers back in 1984, recently spoke to Fox News Digital by phone when he was questioned if the purpose of the trial was “to satisfy a mob.”
“Someone has already hit you with a skateboard, and someone else is pointing a gun at you, and they are shouting that they are going to kill you. You also have a gun; wouldn’t you start pointing your gun at them?” he asked.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he and at least one friend said they traveled to the Wisconsin city from Illinois on Aug. 25, 2020, to protect local businesses and provide medical aid after two nights of businesses being looted and set on fire.
He is charged with two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, recklessly endangering safety, and illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18. He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the highest charge.
Goetz referenced the unrest on that night and asked, “Why weren’t any of those people arrested?”
Goetz made headlines in the 1980s for shooting four Black teenagers on a New York City subway. He was riding the No. 2 subway train on Dec. 22, 1984, when he used an illegal handgun to shoot the four teens after they approached him with sharpened screwdrivers and asked him for $5.
Goetz argued it was self-defense because the teens had intended to rob him. Dubbed “The Subway Vigilante,” he was acquitted of attempted murder during his criminal trial in 1987 but was convicted on a weapons charge and spent eight and a half months behind bars.
Speaking exclusively to Fox News, Goetz said the American legal system “should be a truth-seeking process, and prosecutors should be held to that standard.”
“That standard falls when it becomes a political trial like mine was,” he said, “and we see it happening again right now.”
Rittenhouse took the stand in his own defense on Wednesday. His trial is expected to turn to the jury for deliberations as early as Friday 11/12.
