Shooting leaves 2 dead in Wis.; teen charged
Violence caught on video on third night of unrest
“Violence to property, violence to people is absolutely unacceptable.”
Kenosha Mayor John Antaramian
An Illinois teen suspected of killing two people and wounding a third during a third night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was arrested and jailed in Lake County, Illinois.
Court records show Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch, Illinois, was charged there as a fugitive from justice. A document reviewed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said he faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge in Kenosha County.
Under Wisconsin law, Rittenhouse would be charged as an adult.
Video from bystanders showed a
chaotic scene near a busy intersection in the city of Kenosha shortly before midnight. A male used a semiautomatic rifle to kill one man with a blast to the head and another with a shot to the abdomen.
A third man was shot in the arm and is likely to survive.
Authorities did not release the victims’ names but said the two killed were a 26-year-old man from the Kenosha County community of Silver Lake and a 36-year-old Kenosha man. A 26-yearold West Allis man was wounded.
Protesters scattered as shots were followed by screaming, based on a videos from the scene and interviews.
The West Allis man shot in the arm yelled at people trying to help him that he had a tourniquet in his backpack and to turn it tightly around his arm to stop the blood flowing from his wound.
The incident occurred around 11:45 p.m., Kenosha police said.
Mayor John Antaramian said local, state and federal officials have responded to the city since Sunday’s unrest, and he expressed his condolences to the victims of the shooting Tuesday night.
“What is happening to them is wrong,” he said Wednesday afternoon at a news conference. “People have differences of opinion. We have different concepts on how things should be done, but violence in the community is not acceptable.
“Violence to property, violence to people is absolutely unacceptable.”
“Let’s use our hearts, our love and our intelligence to work together, to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other. America is great when we behave greatly.” Julia Jackson, Jacob Blake’s mother
Violent protests have torn through Kenosha since a police officer shot Jacob Blake in the back at close range Sunday while he was getting in a small SUV. Buildings and vehicles were burned, windows smashed and stores looted.
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said Wednesday afternoon that the city’s curfew will be moved up an hour to 7 p.m. effective through Sunday.
Among the hundreds in the streets of Kenosha since Sunday night are people carrying rifles and handguns.
Tuesday night, many people were walking up and down Sheridan Road, where protesters were driven after being expelled by law enforcement officials from Civic Center Park.
Video showed Rittenhouse on the scene, carrying a lightweight rifle.
The sheriff said someone asked him why he didn’t deputize armed citizens to patrol the city, “and I’m like ‘Oh hell no.’ What happened last night is the perfect reason why I wouldn’t.”
Deputized citizens would “fall under my guidance and my supervisors’, and they are a liability to me and the county and the state of Wisconsin. The incident that happened last night where two people lost their lives were part of this group that wanted me to deputize them,” Beth said.
The sheriff said that when police told protesters they needed to leave Tuesday night when the clock reached the 8 p.m. curfew, some did. Others didn’t leave, and some began “pelting the officers over the fence with stones, bricks and Molotov cocktails.”
“We gave them 10 to 15 minutes and tear gassed to disperse the crowd,” Beth said. “It’s not something we wanted to do, but with the damage and everything that went on Monday night, it is something we had to do.”
Blake’s family said Tuesday that the 29-year-old father of six is paralyzed from the waist down. They pleaded for calm.
“Let’s use our hearts, our love and our intelligence to work together, to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other. America is great when we behave greatly,” Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, said during a news conference Tuesday afternoon.
Authorities haven’t released the names of two Kenosha police officers who followed Blake to his SUV before one tugged on his shirt and fired seven rounds into his back.
Police Chief Daniel Miskinis declined to name the officers involved Wednesday and said he could not comment on the investigation, which is being handled by the state Department of Justice.
According to videos, interviews and social media posts, Rittenhouse fancied himself a member of a militia aiming to protect life and property. He is seen in a video with armed men who said they were protecting a car lot.
Antioch Police Department Cmdr. Norm Johnson told the Journal Sentinel that Rittenhouse was arrested Wednesday morning and is in the Lake County judicial system.
Since Rittenhouse was taken into custody in Illinois, Wisconsin must file documents to extradite him to face homicide charges in Kenosha County.
Protesters’ video of the scene and graphic footage shared on social media show an armed person pursued by several people, screaming and shouting, down the middle of the street. The person falls on the ground and fires his weapon at the people around him.
The shooting suspect, clad in jeans, a green T-shirt, blue gloves and white ball cap, headed north toward several police tactical vehicles, his arms raised, according to video footage. The tactical vehicles drove by him toward the victims lying on the ground.
When asked why authorities didn’t arrest the suspect as he walked toward them with hands up, the sheriff said he was not at the scene, but he could understand what might have happened. “There was screaming, there’s hollering, there’s chanting, there’s a squad car running, there’s (armored vehicles) idling. If the officer happened to be in the car, the radio traffic was nonstop,” and it’s possible he didn’t know what just happened, Beth said.
President Donald Trump said Wednesday in a series of tweets that “federal law enforcement and the National Guard” would be sent to Kenosha to restore law and order.
The Wisconsin National Guard sent troops, at Evers’ order, to supplement law enforcement Monday and Tuesday, and they will be in Kenosha on Wednesday night.
Wisconsin Adjutant General Paul Knapp, whose troops were called to several other cities this summer to deal with protests in response to the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police, said militias are not needed in Kenosha.
“No, I don’t need more guns on the street in the community when we’re trying to keep people safe. Law enforcement is trained. They are the ones who should do the job. It would be helpful for everyone to realize that,” Knapp, a major general, said at a news conference.