Sandy MaloneAntioch, IL – Illinois police arrested a 17-year-old boy on Wednesday morning in connection with two fatal shootings during the riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday night.
Lake County, Illinois Clerk of Courts records showed that Antioch police arrested Kyle Rittenhouse at his home after he was charged with first-degree murder and labeled a “fugitive from justice,” the Independent reported.
“(The suspect) fled the state of Wisconsin with the intent to avoid prosecution for that offence,” according to charging documents.
Rittenhouse is facing at least two counts of “first-degree intentional homicide” in connection with incidents that occurred during the riots over the shooting of 29-year-old Jacob Blake by the Kenosha police, the Independent reported.
Cell phone videos posted to social media showed what happened at about 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 26 that left two people dead and a third person seriously wounded.
The teen identified as Rittenhouse can be seen in his green shirt carrying a semi-automatic rifle in several of the videos filmed through the night.
Some reports have claimed that Rittenhouse was leaving the area when rioters chased him.
This is the masked man with a skateboard hitting the armed person on the ground a split second before he presumably gets shot. I don’t know if he is one of the two that died. #KenoshaRiots pic.twitter.com/lxxVN7pu9Y
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 26, 2020
In one video, rioters were attacking him with a skateboard before he opened fire on them.
.@Julio_Rosas11 recorded shocking footage of rioters trying to beat up someone with a rifle. The person trips and then a bunch of shots can be heard. #KenoshaRiots pic.twitter.com/ntmU6d6ZNM
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 26, 2020
Several witnesses told Heavy that Rittenhouse was running down the street screaming that he wasn’t the shooter as people chased him.
They said he was struck by someone with a skateboard and fell to the ground with the gun firing.
Those witnesses told Heavy that the first shooter was a white man in a helmet and bullet-proof vest who got into an argument with Black Lives Matter protesters who had started fires in the area.
They said Rittenhouse wasn’t the same person.
It is being reported that the shooter is a 17 year old who drove to #Kenosha from Antioch, Illinois with an AR-15 looking for trouble. He murdered 2 people and wounded a man who will lose his arm as a result.
Where is @realDonaldTrump complaining about outside agitators? pic.twitter.com/dBaF7R88zK
— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) August 26, 2020
The shootings occurred at about 11:45 p.m. on Aug. 25 after activists had been pushed out of Civic Center Park and many were wandering up and down Sheridan Road, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
People scattered at the sound of gunshots, and cell phone videos filmed in the crowd showed some people were carrying long guns.
One of the videos showed a male with a long gun running into a parking lot, and then taking off after he sees a man shot in the head on the ground.
Extremely graphic: Someone at the #KenoshaRiots was just shot in the head. @livesmattershow was there to record it. pic.twitter.com/dH1t5M4AIK
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) August 26, 2020
Another video showed what appeared to be the same person running from a crowd of protesters, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
One indivdual shot in the chest #Kenosha
— Crisis Intel 🚨 (@Crisis_Intel) August 26, 2020
He fell to the ground and appeared to open fire on the people who were chasing him.
The male with the long gun appeared to shoot two people from his spot on the ground – one in the torso and one in the arm – before fleeing in the direction of the tactical police vehicles approaching, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
Extended footage of the shooting in Kenosha. pic.twitter.com/oBG6UgT0Fs
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) August 26, 2020
Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth said authorities did not yet know if there was more than one person shooting in the crowd, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
A since-deleted picture of Rittenhouse posted to his mother’s Facebook page showed he was part of the Grayslake-Lindenhurst-Hainesville Public Safety Cadet Program in 2017, according to Heavy.
Kenosha mass shooter Kyle Rittenhouse appears to idolize the Police. It’s all over his FB. This picture most of all. https://t.co/2CTfwHhvF2 pic.twitter.com/HCAog3WGwe
— Merc with a Mouth (@Mercuryal) August 26, 2020
His own Facebook page had numerous pro-police postings as well as pictures of Rittenhouse posing with what appeared to be the same AR-15 rifle he was allegedly carrying during the riots in Kenosha on Tuesday night.
Friends said he had gone to Kenosha on Tuesday night to help local businesses defend themselves from rioters in response to a call for help on social media.
Holly Matkin
