Police have arrested 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse and charged him with first-degree intentional homicide in connection with deadly shootings in Kenosha Tuesday night.
The Antioch, Illinois, teen is in custody at a juvenile facility less than 20 miles from this week’s riots and looting, which were sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Two of the three individuals shot during Tuesday night’s chaos died.
“A senseless tragedy like this cannot happen again,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement. “I again ask those who choose to exercise their First Amendment rights please do so peacefully and safely, as so many did last night. I also ask the individuals who are not there to exercise those rights to please stay home and let local first responders, law enforcement and members of the Wisconsin National Guard do their jobs.”
Julio Rosas of the conservative website Townhall was on the scene and captured key footage as it happened.
“Multiple gunshots are fired after people chased a guy with a rifle,” the reporter tweeted Tuesday with an embedded video. “Rifle dude tripped and fell. He fired his gun at a guy who jumped on top of him.”
The Marine veteran noted that one of the shootings happened during a struggle for the suspect’s rifle.
“Two people jumped onto him and there was a struggle for control of his rifle,” Chicago’s WGN reported Wednesday. “At that point during the struggle, he just began to fire multiple rounds and that dispersed people near him.”
Brendan Gutenschwager’s “BG On The Scene” also captured graphic footage as it unfolded.
“A crowd chases a suspected shooter down in Kenosha,” he tweeted with his own embedded video. “He trips and falls, then turns with the gun and fires several times. Shots can be heard fired elsewhere as well, corroborating reports of multiple shooters tonight #Kenosha #KenoshaRiots.”
“People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business,” Mr. Rittenhouse says in an interview with the Daily Caller’s Richie McGinniss moments before the shootings. “If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way.”
Antioch Police are holding the suspect pending an extradition hearing scheduled for Friday, an ABC affiliate reported.
🚨🚨🚨: Multiple gunshots are fired after people chased a guy with a rifle. Rifle dude tripped and fell. He fired his gun at a guy who jumped on top of him. pic.twitter.com/BfV244MMnc
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 26, 2020
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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