NBA superstar LeBron James has accused Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse of having 'crocodile tears' as the 18-year-old lost control during his emotional testimony at his murder trial for the August 2020 shootings.
The Los Angeles Lakers star took to Twitter to mock Rittenhouse for what he apparently saw as courtroom theatrics after the teenager erupted into tears during his testimony on the shooting last year which left two people dead and one injured.
READ MORE: ‘Don’t get brazen with me!’ Judge in Rittenhouse case unloads on prosecutor (VIDEO)
"What tears?????" James wrote, suggesting that Rittenhouse's reaction was little more than a ploy designed to garner sympathy with the jury. "I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court."
James' tweet is approaching 150,000 likes and 25,000 retweets in the hours after it was was posted.
Rittenhouse is facing two counts of homicide, one of attempted homicide as well as further charges of 'recklessly endangering safety and illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18' after he traveled to Wisconsin from Illinois during civil unrest related to the 'Black Lives Matter' movement.
His legal team maintain that Rittenhouse, who was just 17 at the time of the shootings, traveled to the area with the intention of protecting local businesses and providing aid to people who may require it, and that the shootings were performed in self-defense after claiming that he was being chased by assailants with guns.
The prosecution disagrees, saying that he illegally crossed state lines with firearms and was the person who instigated the confrontation during which two people lost their lives and contending that Rittenhouse was the only person to have shot someone during the Kenosha riots.
James' social media interjection displays the racially-charged nature of the case and is the latest instance of the NBA icon – who was once told by conservative mouthpiece Laura Ingraham to "shut up and dribble" and stay out of public affairs – using his platform to attempt to comment on societal issues such as this.