WAR ZONE WISCONSIN
Riots escalate after shooting of Jacob Blake 17yo vigilante charged with killing two
Kenosha, Wis., has exploded after white police officers shot a black man, Jacob Blake (inset), seven times. Rioters burned down stores, while yesterday, Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, a militia member from Illinois, was charged with fatally shooting two men and wounding another (pictured).
A teenage vigilante fatally shot two people and wounded a third on Tuesday night, during fiery clashes in Kenosha, Wis., over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, authorities said Wednesday.
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was part of a heavily armed militia group declaring it was protecting local businesses from looting and arson when he allegedly shot one man in the head and then fired several shots at protesters who chased him as he fled.
“People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business,” Rittenhouse said in video posted by The Daily Caller blog before the killings.
“And part of my job is also to help people,” he continued. “If someone is hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have a rifle. I’ve gotta protect myself, obviously. I also have my med kit.”
Less than 24 hours later, Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Ill., was arrested Wednesday on charges of first-degree intentional homicide — after he “fled the state of Wisconsin with the intent to avoid prosecution for the offense,” according to an arrest record obtained by BuzzFeed.
Antioch is about 20 miles from Kenosha, and Rittenhouse is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, pending a Friday hearing.
It was unclear what sparked the shooting. Video and images posted on social media show several people running across a parking lot, as at least three shots are fired and a man with a red cloth around his head collapses.
A gunman alleged to be Rittenhouse then enters the frame briefly standing over the downed man and appearing to make a phone call before running off — with what appears to be a medic kit strapped to him twisting in the wind as he flees.
Other footage shows bystanders tending to the wounded man, who is shown bleeding from the head.
“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, boom, and I told my friend, ‘That’s not fireworks,’ ” protester Devin Scott, 19, told WITI-TV.
“And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone!’ ” Scott said.
“And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him, and then he started shooting again.”
In another clip, the gunman can be seen walking down the street, when he stumbles and is set upon by at least two protesters — and opens fire again, striking two more people, including a man who walks off holding his chest.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said at a press conference Wednesday that the militia group Rittenhouse was with had sought to be deputized to help defend the city during the protests — a request the sheriff said he roundly denied.
“What happened last night is the perfect reason why I didn’t,” he said at a press conference.
“As part of the County of Kenosha, that would’ve been, in reality, that would’ve been one deputy sheriff who killed two people, and the liability that goes with that would’ve been immense.”
The sheriff did not address video posted to social media that appeared to show Rittenhouse throw up his hands in front of police after the shooting — only for the cops to drive by the armed man toward the scene.
Earlier in the evening, video shows cops commend the vigilantes — including a man matching Rittenhouse’s description — for their presence. “Hey, thank you guys,” an officer in an armored police vehicle tells the armed men in
one video recorded after the city’s 8 p.m. curfew. “You need water?”
“We appreciate you guys, we really do,” an officer is heard saying as the vehicle convoy moves on.
Meanwhile, one of Rittenhouse’s alleged victims was identified as Anthony Huber, 26, from Silver Lake in Kenosha County, WDJT-TV reported.
“He is a peaceful person,” a Huber friend told the station. “He didn’t go out looking to beat people up . . . and he put his life on the line for others.”
The other fatality, a 36-year-old man from Kenosha, has not been identified.
Beth said hundreds of additional law-enforcement personnel have now augmented the city’s forces, including cops from other Wisconsin departments, state troopers, more than 200 National Guard troops, and additional support from the FBI and the US Marshals Service.
Meanwhile, President Trump denounced the violence on Twitter, and said he would send additional federal reinforcements into the city.
Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskins reiterated the fatal shootings Tuesday were “not a police action,” and said an investigation “is still very active.”