US teenage gunman sees himself as a ‘protector’
‘Militia’ youth charged with shooting dead two men is Right-wing gun fanatic and idolises Trump
WEARING purple surgical gloves and carrying both a first-aid kit and a rifle, Kyle Rittenhouse thought he was doing a public service when interviewed on video by The Daily Caller, a Right-wing news and opinion website.
“People are getting injured. Our job is to protect this business,” he said as he joined members of a self-appointed “militia” at Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“If somebody is hurt, I am running into harm’s way.”
Within hours, the 17-year-old high school dropout was in police custody and facing charges of first-degree murder after two people were shot dead.
Events surrounding the first shooting are still sketchy. Police believe there was a confrontation between protesters and members of the vigilante group in which a shot was fired.
Footage from the scene does show a flash from a handgun and Rittenhouse being chased by someone who hurls some sort of missile at him.
Rittenhouse then swivels around, firing a volley of bullets, apparently hitting his pursuer in the head.
A witness shouts: “He shot him, he shot him man, he laid him out.”
Rittenhouse then flees down the street, pursued by around a dozen protesters, shouting that “he’s the shooter”.
The teenager trips and is kicked by one protester and hit with a skateboard by another. While on the ground he swivels, shooting one person in the chest and a second, who was carrying a handgun, in the arm.
He then jogs down the road and, with his arms raised, runs toward the police, who appear to ignore him.
While it will be left to the courts to decide on whether Rittenhouse was acting in self-defence, the political fallout from events in Kenosha has begun.
Tucker Carlson, a Right-wing commentator on Fox News, appeared to defend him. “Are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder,” Carlson asked. “How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”
The unrest in the inner cities and allegations of police brutality are certain to dominate the run-up to November’s presidential election.
More details have emerged about the teenager who idolised the police and Donald Trump, attending a Make American Great Again rally in January.
Yesterday, the US president praised the National Guard’s response after being brought in to quell the protests.
“I appreciate the governor calling and saying he wanted National Guard... they did a fantastic job last night, we had virtually no incident.” He added: “Portland should do the same thing. These are all Democrat-run cities.”
Rittenhouse’s patriotism extended to his footwear, wearing Stars and Stripes slippers in one online photo.
He was raised by his mother, Wendy, who worked at a nursing home. In January 2017, she sought a court order to protect him from bullies, who described him as “dumb” and “stupid”.
He idolised the police. He was photographed wearing a cadet’s uniform and signed up for a programme aimed at people aged from 14-21 who nurtured ambitions to join the force.
He was also a supporter of the Blue Lives Matter pro-police movement that emerged as a response to the anti-racism Black Lives Matter campaign.
Although too young to own a weapon under Illinois law, Rittenhouse was fascinated by guns, taking them apart and putting them together and practising target shooting at home.
As violence erupted in Kenosha, following the police shooting of an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake, Rittenhouse, who had been furloughed from his job as a lifeguard, travelled 15 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois, to join the ranks of the self-appointed militia that had descended on the city of just over 100,000 people.
There had been calls on social media for militias to protect businesses, to the horror of John Antaramian, the city’s mayor. “I don’t need more guns on the street,” he said.