Kenosha Shooter Kyle Rittenhouse Won’t Face Charges In Home State
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois to Kenosha, Wisconsin and gunned down two people during a protest over the police shooting of Jacob Blake. He will not face charges in Illinois.
Rittenhouse will reportedly not be charged in his home state because the gun he used in the shooting did not go across state lines.The Lake County State’s Attorney’s Office released the following statement, “There is no evidence the gun was ever physically possessed by Kyle Rittenhouse in Illinois.”
According to WTMJ4-TV, the gun was purchased and used in Wisconsin. The person who allegedly gave him the weapon has not been identified. Rittenhouse is currently being held in a juvenile detention facility in Illinois, pending extradition to Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse was charged with first degree homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, and a misdemeanor weapons use in the Aug. 25 shooting deaths of Anthony Huber, 26, and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36. Another person, Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, was also reportedly shot and wounded.
There are questions surrounding why Rittenhouse, who lived in Illinois, was even in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His lawyers claimed a business owner invited him to protect property but have not identified who made the request.
There were reports the owner was Anmol Khindri, who co-owns Car Source with his father. However, he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Why would I? ... I’m already burned out. There was nothing left to protect.” According to Kenosha News, another person at CarSource said about Rittenhouse, “I don’t know that guy. He came out of nowhere.”
Rittenhouse was also captured on video in a violent encounter with two women in early July.
According to the Racine Journal Times, the teen was spotted on the video in downtown Kenosha on July 1 inserting himself in an argument. When a third person, a young woman, gets into a scuffle with one of the other women, Rittenhouse begins to punch one of the women as the other man tries to hold him back.
Watch the incident below:
BET has been covering every angle of the police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Rayshard Brooks and other social justice cases and the subsequent aftermath and protests. For our continuing coverage, click here.