A juror in the Kyle Rittenhouse homicide trial was dismissed after telling a tasteless joke to a court deputy about the near fatal shooting of Jacob Blake. 

Judge Bruce Schroeder said the male juror told the joke when he was being escorted to his car. 

“I’m going to summarize what I remember, what I was told,” Schroeder said. “He was telling a joke… he told the officer… he made a reference about telling a joke about ‘Why did it take seven shots to shoot Jacob Blake,’ something to that effect.” 

According to prosecutors, the joke was: “Why did it take seven shots to shoot Jacob Blake? Because they ran out of bullets.” 

“The joke is in bad taste, there are a plethora of bad jokes out there with everything to do with all this, this is one of them. But I think the rest of this joke, as it were, suggests some sort of racial bias which I think comes into play,” said Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, who took an issue with the incident. 

The juror, described as a middle-aged white male, was called in by Schroeder for questioning. The judge asked the juror to repeat the joke, but the juror refused nervously, according to a reporter in the court room.  

“My feelings is, it was nothing to do with the case. It was nothing to do with Kyle and his charges,” the juror told the judge. 

The judge did not agree and dismissed the juror. 

Related: Jury Selection Completed in One Day in Kyle Rittenhouse Trial 

“It is clear that the appearance to bias is present and it would seriously undermine the outcome of the case,” Schroeder said. 

On the night of August 25, 2020, Rittenhouse, then 17 years old, armed himself with an AR-15 style rifle and drove down from Antioch, Ill. to Kenosha, to protect businesses during the protest of Jacob Blake. 

 His attorney says he acted in self-defense in the shooting deaths of Anthony M. Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin centered around the Jacob Blake Shooting. 

Rittenhouse, now 18, has pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree attempted intentional homicide. 

Rittenhouse is also accused of shooting and injuring 26-year-old Gaige Grosskreutz. 

Related: Kyle Rittenhouse Trial: Lawyers Can’t Call 2 People Killed ‘Victims’ 

Blake was shot in the back seven times by Rusten Sheskey while trying to get into his vehicle during an arrest over an outstanding warrant. Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down.