Prairie State Wire

In a statement Friday on the not guilty verdict of Lake County teen Kyle Rittenhouse, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker mourned the deaths of two men who tried to kill him, including child rapist Joseph Rosenbaum and fellow convicted violent criminal Anthony Huber.

"26 year old Anthony Huber and 36 year-old Joseph Rosenbaum, a father, had their whole lives ahead of them," Pritzker said. "They deserved to be alive today. They deserve justice."

Court testimony detailed how Huber and Rosenbaum were violently rioting on the streets of Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020 when they attacked the then-17 year-old Rittenhouse, who shot them both dead.

Huber tried to hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard; Rosenbaum was chasing him and tried to take his rifle.

At the time, Rosenbaum was a year removed from spending 14 years in an Arizona prison for child molestation, specifically anally raping and performing oral sex on five boys aged nine to 11 years old. He had actively open cases for domestic violence against his fiance and bail jumping when he died.

Cameras that night recorded Rosenbaum swinging a chain and screaming "shoot me, nigger!" at armed Kenosha residents protecting their property. An eyewitness said he heard Rosenbaum say he would "“kill [you] motherfuckers, motherfucking niggers and cut [your] hearts out.”

Wisconsin court records show Huber also spent time in a Wisconsin prison, for choking his brother. He was more recently convicted of domestic abuse and disorderly conduct in 2018.

Rittenhouse's lawyer, Corey Chirafisi, described Huber's violence in court.

“Huber grabbed his brother by the neck, dug his nails in and choked him for approximately ten seconds,” Chirafisi said. “He put a knife to his brother’s left ear and his brother felt it cut.”

“I’m going to burn the house down with all you fuckers in it,” Chirafisi told the judge, Huber said.