Judge delays extradition for teen charged with shooting 3 protesters

The 17-year-old vigilante charged in the shooting and killing of two men during this week’s protest in Kenosha, Wis. will remain in custody in Illinois, after a judge agreed to delay his extradition to Wisconsin.

Kyle Rittenhouse was charged Thursday with six criminal counts, including first-degree intentional homicide, attempted homicide, and possession of a dangerous weapon below the legal age of 18.

He was arrested in Illinois and held pending extradition to Wisconsin, where the alleged crimes occurred.

According to The Associated Press, under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system. If convicted of first-degree homicide, he would face a mandatory life sentence.

In a short hearing that was livestreamed Friday morning, assistant public defender Jennifer Snyder asked a judge to delay his extradition to give his family more time to hire a private attorney.

The judge granted the request and set a new hearing for Sept. 25.

Rittenhouse, who didn’t appear for Friday’s virtual hearing, was arrested Wednesday in his hometown of Antioch, Ill., about 15 miles from Kenosha.

He’s accused of shooting three people, killing two of them, during demonstrations over the Sunday police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man.

On Tuesday, Rittenhouse was caught on cellphone video walking around protesters armed with a semiautomatic rifle, saying he was protecting local business from vandalism.

The Kenosha protests were sparked by the shooting of Blake by a police officer.

A family lawyer said Tuesday that the incident has left him paralyzed from the waist down.

“It’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again,” his attorney Ben Crump said.