Kyle Rittenhouse's attorney claims the Kenosha gunman is an 'American patriot' and compares the shots he fired killing two unarmed BLM protesters to the 'shot heard around the world' that started the American Revolution

Kyle Rittenhouse's attorney has claimed the Kenosha gunman is an 'American patriot' and compared the shots he fired killing two unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters in the street to the 'shot heard around the world' that started the American Revolution.

Rittenhouse is accused of murdering Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, during protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a black man left paralyzed after being shot seven times in the back by a white cop in front of his three young children. 

According to the criminal complaint, Rittenhouse shot one of his victims five times including in the head in Wisconsin on August 25, and later called one of his friends afterwards to boast 'I've killed someone'.

The suspected killer also shot a third - and only surviving - victim Gaige Grosskreutz in the arm while the 26-year-old was carrying a handgun. 

Defense lawyer John Pierce said that Rittenhouse will go 'down in American history' as the leader of the 'Second American Revolution'.  

'Kyle Rittenhouse will go down in American history alongside that brave unknown patriot... who fired "The Shot Heard Round the World,"' Pierce wrote this month in a tweet he later deleted.  

'A Second American Revolution against Tyranny has begun.'  

Similar claims of heroism have been made in TV appearances and other social media posts, where the legal team described Kenosha as a 'war zone' and the young shooter as an 'American patriot' and a 'shining symbol of the American fighting spirit.'

Kyle Rittenhouse's attorney has claimed the Kenosha gunman is an 'American patriot' and compared the shots he fired killing two unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters in the street to the 'shot heard around the world' that started the American Revolution

Lawyer John Pierce claimed Rittenhouse will go 'down in American history' as the leader of the 'Second American Revolution'

'This is the sacred ground in Kenosha where a 17-year old child became a Minuteman and said 'Not on My Watch,'' Pierce tweeted above a photo of Kenosha burned amid unrest.

The extremity of the comparison between the alleged killer teen and the person who paved the way to America's independence has not been lost on legal experts who warned it could risk Rittenhouse's chances of acquittal. 

Such dramatic rhetoric has helped raise nearly $2 million for Rittenhouse's defense but experts said it may not work with a jury considering charges that could put the teen in prison for life.  

'They're playing to his most negative characteristics and stereotypes, what his critics want to perceive him as - a crazy militia member out to cause harm and start a revolution,' said Robert Barnes, a prominent Los Angeles defense attorney.  

Eric Creizman, a former partner at Pierce's firm, said the heated language in the tweets is not surprising because of his former boss' tendency toward hyperbole, though he also said he wonders if it will backfire.

'The question really should focus on whether this guy is guilty of what they´re charging him with,' he said, 'instead of making it into a political issue.' 

Rittenhouse faces five felony charges including first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless homicide, and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor.

He will appear in court Friday for his extradition hearing in Illinois where a judge will rule on whether to return him to Wisconsin. 

The inflammatory tweets came in the same week that Rittenhouse's legal team, which has ties to Donald Trump and Covington Catholic teenager Nick Sandmann, released an 11-minute video saying the 17-year-old was simply trying to maintain the peace and protect local businesses.

The video is the latest tactic from attorneys attempting to paint the cop-obsessed teen not as a murderer but as a courageous defender of liberty exercising his right to bear arms in the face of so-called mob violence.

In the slickly produced video released by attorney Lin Wood's FightBack Foundation, Rittenhouse's defense team argues that the teen was exercising his constitutional rights to defend the community when he shot at the protesters.  

'A 17-year-old citizen is being sacrificed by politicians, but it's not Kyle Rittenhouse they are after,' says the voice-over at the end of video released this week. 

'Their end game is to strip away the constitutional right of all citizens to defend our communities.'

The video portrays the police-obsessed Trump supporter as a model citizen who had just gotten off his shift as lifeguard and was cleaning graffiti from a vandalized high school before he received word from a business owner seeking help to protect what was left of his property after rioters had burned two of his other buildings.

Rittenhouse's victims Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha, and Anthony Huber, 26, of Silver Lake,

Gaige Grosskreutz - the suspected killer's third and only surviving victim is pictured in hospital recovering after the shooting. On right is his left arm where he was shot 

The law-and-order theme - as opposed to pursuing a self defense route - mirrors the reelection theme Donald Trump has struck in recent months amid a wave of protests demanding an end to racism and police brutality after multiple cop killings of black men and women across America. 

One politically charged tactic critics have attacked as a longshot is lawyer Pierce's promise to fight a charge of underage firearm possession, a misdemeanor, by arguing US law allows for an 'unorganized militia.' Rittenhouse wielded a semi-automatic rifle.

Some experts have even questioned whether the teenager's team of four attorneys will feel pressure to hold back from making a plea bargain out of fear of disrupting the patriotic narrative and disappointing donors.

Rittenhouse's high-profile defense and fund-raising teams, led by Los Angeles-based Pierce and Atlanta attorney Lin Wood, respectively, refused to speak to The Associated Press about their strategy ahead of the teen's next court appearance Friday. 

Both Pierce and Wood have ties to Trump's orbit and his brand of GOP politics, though it's not clear if that played any role in their involvement in Rittenhouse's case and how it is being handled. 

For his part, Trump has made statements appearing to support Rittenhouse's claim of self-defense, saying the young man 'probably would have been killed.'

Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani hired Pierce's firm late last year when he was reportedly under investigation for possibly breaking lobbying laws for his work in Ukraine for the president, as did Carter Page and George Papadopoulos, former Trump advisers caught up in the Russia investigation.

The video from the defense team tries to paint Rittenhouse as a model citizen 

Wood, a defamation lawyer who represented falsely accused security guard Richard Jewell in the 1996 Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, is also a lawyer for Sean Hannity, the Fox News host with close ties to Trump.

Wood also made headlines recently representing Nicholas Sandmann, the Kentucky teen in the 'Make America Great Again' hat, in his lawsuits against news organizations over their coverage of his encounter with an American Indian protester in Washington last year.

Both attorneys moved quickly after Rittenhouse was arrested in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, two days after the shooting deaths of the two protesters and wounding of a third.

Pierce flew to Illinois to meet Rittenhouse and his family that same day, according to his tweets, which included appeals for donations to the #FightBack Foundation that was started with Wood a few weeks earlier to fund lawsuits aimed at the 'lies' of the 'radical left.'

George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said he wouldn't be surprised if the patriotic language that has wooed online donors were eventually abandoned for the most obvious defense, that 'Rittenhouse was a confused kid who got in over his head.' 

Despite attempts to paint Rittenhouse as a 'patriot' his legal team has also claimed he was acting in self-defense and that it was he who was 'attacked' with 'lethal force'. 

The deadly night unfolded when, at around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, Rittenhouse was walking down the streets near a car dealership holding 'a Smith & Wesson AR-15 style .223 rifle,' according to the criminal complaint. 

The complaint states Rittenhouse clashed with people in the car lot.   

Rosenbaum, who was unarmed, threw a plastic bag at the gunman and attempted to take the weapon from him, the complaint states.

The plastic bag missed Rittenhouse and he and Rosenbaum moved across the parking lot and appeared to be in close proximity to each other when the 17-year-old opened fire on the victim, according to the complaint. 

A journalist on the scene told investigators the victim was trying to get the suspect's gun off him. 

Rosenbaum was shot five times in the right groin and back - which fractured his pelvis and perforated his right lung and liver - his left hand, left thigh and right side of his forehead, according to the criminal complaint.  

As his victim lay dying on the ground, the suspect ran from the scene and made a call to a friend saying: 'I just killed somebody'. 

Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, has been charged with first degree intentional homicide following the shooting death of two protesters in Kenosha on Tuesday. Social media photos show the teen had a strong admiration for law enforcement and guns

Much of Rittenhouse's Facebook is devoted to praising law enforcement, with references to Blue Lives Matter - the movement that supports police. He also previously participated in a youth public safety cadet program , according to social media

Rosenbaum was pronounced dead around an hour later. 

Rittenhouse then ran down the street and was chased by several people shouting that he just shot someone before he tripped and fell, according to the complaint and video footage. 

While Rittenhouse was on the ground, a man with a skateboard - later identified as Huber - approached him, the complaint says.  

Huber, who was also unarmed, appears to be 'reaching for the defendant's gun with his left hand as the skateboard makes contact with the defendant's left shoulder', the complaint reads. 

As Huber allegedly tries to disarm the suspected killer, Rittenhouse shoots the victim in the chest.

Huber staggers away before collapsing to the ground and dying. 

The victim's autopsy revealed he suffered a gunshot wound to his chest that perforated his heart, aorta, pulmonary artery and right lung. 

Rittenhouse's only surviving victim Gaige Grosskreutz froze, ducked to the ground and took a step back when he saw Rittenhouse shoot Huber. 

He puts his hands in the air and then began to approach the suspect, the complaint says. 

Rittenhouse then shot him in the left arm at close range, the complaint says. 

Grosskreutz managed to flee the scene and called for a medic as the suspect walked away, the complaint reads.   

The public is demanding answers from Kenosha police over their interactions with the gunman after footage emerged showing Rittenhouse walking past cops and leaving the scene with his rifle slung over his shoulder and hands in the air following his alleged shooting rampage. 

Members of the crowd yelled at the cops to arrest him telling them he shot people but the 17-year-old was able to leave the scene and was not arrested until the following day.  

Outrage is especially building as people draw comparisons between the treatment of the illegally armed 17-year-old who had allegedly shot dead two men and injured another and the treatment of Blake by cops. 

Blake was not armed with a gun when he was shot seven times in the back in front of his children two days earlier.