You seem to be one of our resident legal experts. /s So how come the police gave him water and thanked him 15 minutes before the shooting?
“About 90 minutes into the livestream at 11:30 p.m. — 15 minutes before the fatal shooting — the following exchange with police occurs as Rittenhouse and another armed man walk outside a business.
Police officer (over a loudspeaker): “You need water? Seriously. (unintelligible) You need water?”
Rittenhouse, raising his arm and walking toward the police vehicle: “We need water.”
Police officer: “We’ll throw you one.”
Rittenhouse then walks out into the street amid several police vehicles, holding his hand in the air for a water bottle. An officer surfaces from a hatch at the top of the police vehicle and tosses a water bottle to a person located just out of the camera’s view, where Rittenhouse would likely be standing based on the preceding footage.
Police officer: “We got a couple. We’ve got to save a couple, but we’ll give you a couple. We appreciate you guys, we really do.”
I think Rittenhouse was asking for the water so he could flush out the eyes of one of the people defending the gas station and the auto repair facility next door who was sprayed with pepper spray by one of the rioters.