KENOSHA, Wis. — Police arrested an Illinois teenager Wednesday after two people were shot to death during another night of Black Lives Matter protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
A law enforcement official identified the suspect as 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch.
Commander Norman Johnson of the Antioch Police Department said the suspect was arrested on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide.
Antioch is about 15 miles from Kenosha, which has seen three straight nights of unrest since the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.
Two people were killed Tuesday night in an attack that was caught on cellphone video opening fire in the middle of the street with a semi-automatic rifle.
“I just killed somebody,” a person in a the video could be heard saying at one point during the shooting rampage that erupted just before midnight.
In the wake of the killings, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers authorized 500 members of the National Guard to support local law enforcement around Kenosha, doubling the number of troops sent in. The governor’s office said he working other states to bring in additional National Guard troops and law officers.
One victim was shot in the head and the other in the chest, Sheriff David Beth told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. A third person suffered gunshot wounds not believed to be life-threatening.
The victims have not been identified.
Beth told the Journal Sentinel that armed people had been patrolling the city’s streets in recent nights, but he did not know if the shooter was among them.
“They’re a militia,” Beth said. “They’re like a vigilante group.”
Cellphone video of at least two of the shootings that was posted online shows a young person with a rifle jogging down the middle of a street as a crowd and some police officers follow him. Someone in the crowd can be heard asking, “What did he do?” and another person responds that the man had shot someone.
The male with the gun stumbles and falls, and as he is approached by people in the crowd, he fires three or four shots from a seated position, hitting at least two people, including one who falls over and another who stumbles away to cries of “Medic! Medic!”
A witness, Julio Rosas, 24, said that when the gunman stumbled and fell, “two people jumped onto him and there was a struggle for control of his rifle. At that point during the struggle, he just began to fire multiple rounds and that dispersed people near him.”
“The rifle was being jerked around in all directions while it was being fired,” Rosas said.
In the cellphone footage, as the crowd scatters, the gunman stands up and continues walking down the street as police cars arrive. The man puts up his hands and walks toward the squad cars, with someone in the crowd yelling at police that the man had just shot someone, but several of the cars drive past him toward the people who had been shot.
Prior to the shootings, Rittenhouse told a reporter with the right wing outlet The Blaze that he and the other vigilantes were in Kenosha “protecting from the citizens” and claimed he had been “pepper-sprayed.” Rittenhouse then said the armed group wasn’t using “non-lethal” ammunition to guard the area.
CONTEXT: I spoke with the alleged shooter earlier in the night who stated he was there to protect property
He did not make racist comments, condemn #BLM, or mention political motivations for his actions
He said that he was there to protect property & was carrying a firearm pic.twitter.com/ViYUB65tiy
— ELIJAH RIOT (@ElijahSchaffer) August 26, 2020
In another interview, Rittenhouse further tried to explain what he was doing in Kenosha.
“People are getting injured and our job is to protect this business. And part of my job is to also help people,” he said. “If there’s somebody hurt, I’m running into harm’s way. That’s why I have my rifle because I need to protect myself, obviously.”
Another video circulating on social media appears to show Rittenhouse interacting with law enforcement officials in militarized police vehicles. At one point, an official appears to offer up bottles of water before others in the area are warned that they’re trespassing. As Rittenhouse goes to retrieve water, an officer thanks the group he’s with.
“We appreciate you guys,” a voice says over a megaphone. “We really do.”
A Facebook page that appears to belong to Rittenhouse has since been taken down, though archived posts show him posing with a long gun and endorsing the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement. Another post to a page that appears to belong to his mother shows him wearing a police uniform with the caption “WE BACK THE BLUE.”
Rittenhouse’s mother didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
