Update: Kenosha Murderer Charged with Multiple Felonies

Last night I wrote a piece about Kyle Rittenhouse, the baby-faced 17-year old who murdered two people and maimed a third during the Kenosha protests over the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

As with every chaotic, violent, fast-moving story like this, the details sometime get reported wrong. So this is an update and a correction to the previous article.

First and foremost: regardless of the bullshit being slung by right-wing apologists from Tucker Carlson to the idiots on your cousin’s Facebook feed, Rittenhouse committed multiple crimes, including capital offenses. He was not provoked. He was not acting in self-defense. He was not a “scared little kid” fighting off an “angry mob.”

Now. What exactly happened, and what’s he being charged with?

The Charges

Kenosha County DA Michael Graveley filed the charges yesterday. Rittenhouse faces multiple charges, including first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide — all felonies — and two counts of recklessly endangering safety and possession of a dangerous weapon while under 18, which are misdemeanors.

If convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, Rittenhouse will face a mandatory sentence of life. He is being charged as an adult.

Prelude to the Shootings

The information is still coming in, but the more we see (and discounting the questionable stuff such as the list of juvenile charges he supposedly has on him — juvenile charges are sealed by law and rarely made public — and the “trailer trash” photos of two people which may or may not be his parents), the more it appears Rittenhouse is exactly what we thought he was all along: a hyped-up young asshole who went to Kenosha to cut him some libtard ass.

He recorded a video sometime before his visit to Kenosha, describing himself as part of a local militia who intended to go to Kenosha to protect local businesses. His social media presence — hastily scrubbed since his arrest — depicted him as a vocal Trump supporter and a huge fan of the police. “Blue Lives Matter” memes and banners festooned his Facebook page.

On the afternoon of August 25, Rittenhouse drove himself from his Antioch, Illinois home to Kenosha — a thirty-minute drive, but definitely crossing state lines — armed with an AR-15 style .223 rifle. (Reports that his mother drove him to the protests are apparently untrue.) Some time before the shootings, he was photographed scrubbing graffiti off of buildings, and he told Daily Caller reporter Richie McGinniss that he was part of a civilian militia that had appointed themselves to protect businesses from being looted and burned.

Police on the scene repeatedly thanked militia members dressed in camoflauge and carrying military-grade weapons, including Rittenhouse, and tossed them water bottles. “We appreciate you,” Rittenhouse and his fellow militia members were told. “We really do.” The protesters, who were largely unarmed, were welcomed with tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper balls. The police seemed to consider the militia as unauthorized and undeputized assets. One militia member said that police officers told them, “We’re going to push them [the protesters] by you so you can deal with them.”

Cell phone video shows Kenosha Wisconsin police officers in an military vehicle telling armed White militia members they "appreciate them being there" and giving them bottled water; while in the background cops can be heard ordering protestors to disperse. pic.twitter.com/73SsfCUYWj

— Rebecca Kavanagh (@DrRJKavanagh) August 26, 2020

Cell phone video shows Kenosha Wisconsin police officers in an military vehicle telling armed White militia members they "appreciate them being there" and giving them bottled water; while in the background cops can be heard ordering protestors to disperse. pic.twitter.com/73SsfCUYWj

— Rebecca Kavanagh (@DrRJKavanagh) August 26, 2020

Apparently Rittenhouse identified himself to the police as “local militia,” even though he resides in Illinois.

The First Shooting: Joseph Rosenbaum

Things went to shit about 11:45 pm. Rittenhouse was walking in the street alongside McGinness when an unarmed protester, Joseph Rosenbaum, tried to engage with him. Rittenhouse tried to run from him, according to McGinness, and ran across a parking lot. Rosenbaum threw an empty plastic bag at Rittenhouse (wrongly labeled a “Molotov cocktail” by the idiots on your brother’s Twitter feed). According to the criminal complaint:

The object does not hit [Rittenhouse] and a second video shows, based on where the object landed, that it was a plastic bag. Rosenbaum appears to be unarmed for the duration of this video.

Again, for the benefit of the idiots yowling at you on Instagram and in your choir rehearsal, Rosenbaum was not armed. Period. At worst, Rosenbaum may have tried to wrest the gun away from Rittenhouse — for good reason, as events clearly showed.

Video footage doesn’t directly show what happened next, but audio recordings captured a loud bang, almost certainly a gunshot, and someone shouting, “Fuck you!” Four more shots rang out and video footage shows Rosenbaum falling to the ground, mortally wounded. The Milwaukee Medical Examiner later said that Rosenbaum died from multiple gunshots to the groin, his left hand, his left thigh, and back. The back shot tore through his liver and right lung.

So, the initial reports that Rosenbaum died from a shot to the head were wrong. (He did suffer a grazing wound to the forehead, which is likely the source of the reports.) The reports also don’t note that Rittenhouse, true to his roots as a Trump supporter and militia wannabe, likes shooting people in the back.

Rittenhouse ran from the scene of the crime, and made a call to his friend Dominic Black, where he shouted, “I just killed somebody.”

It isn’t clear whether Rittenhouse called in horrified hysterics, or called to brag.

“Angry Mob” and the Second Shooting: Anthony Huber

At this point, several protesters set off in pursuit of Rittenhouse, shouting things like “Beat him up!,” “Hey, he shot him!,” “Get him! Get that dude!,” and “Get his ass!” One man swung at Rittenhouse, knocking his ball cap off. Rittenhouse ran, and tripped over his own feet. Several people tried to pin him down and take his gun. One of those people was Anthony Huber, “armed” with a skateboard. He clumsily swung the skateboard at Rittenhouse with one hand while trying to get the gun — now spraying random shots everywhere — with his other hand. Huber was not successful. Instead, Huber took a bullet in the back that went through his heart. Huber died almost immediately.

The Third Shooting: Gaige Grosskreutz

Rittenhouse’s wild firing scattered the protesters. Rittenhouse sat up, and a third protester, Gaige Grosskreutz, approached with his hands in the air and what was possibly a handgun in one hand. Rittenhouse shot him in the arm. Grosskreutz eventually had to have the injured arm removed in surgery.

(The reckless homicide charge applies to the Rosenbaum murder. The intentional homicide charge applies to the Huber murder. The attempted homicide charge applies to the Grosskreutz shooting.)

Rittenhouse stood up, the protesters gave way, and Rittenhouse backed down the street, menacing the protesters with his rifle.

Rittenhouse Goes Home

He then approached police officers with his rifle slung over his chest and his hands in the air. The police ignored him entirely, even as protesters screamed that he should be arrested because he had shot people. So, Rittenhouse went back to his car and drove home. The police’s “lapse” was defended by Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth, who claimed that the “chaotic” situation distracted his officers.

Afterward

An Illinois judge granted Rittenhouse’s attorney’s request to temporarily stay his extradition to Wisconsin. Rittenhouse is being represented by a public defender, Jennifer Snyder, and, she said, Rittenhouse’s family wants to engage another lawyer.

Rittenhouse’s second attorney, Lin Wood, calls Rittenhouse’s killing spree an act of self defense.

From my standpoint, it’s important that the message be clear to other Americans who are attacked that there will be legal resources available in the event false charges are brought against them. Americans should never be deterred from exercising their right of self-defense.

Wood also said that the rifle Rittenhouse used belonged to a friend of his.

The ACLU is calling for the resignations of Sheriff Beth and the Kenosha Chief of Police, Daniel Miskinis. According to the Wisconsin chapter:

Sheriff David Beth’s deputies not only fraternized with white supremacist counter-protesters on Tuesday, but allowed the shooter to leave as people yelled that he was the shooter. The sheriff excused this by saying his deputies may not have paid attention to the gunman because there were many distractions, including “screaming” and “hollering,” people running, police vehicles idling, “nonstop radio traffic,” and that “in situations that are high stress, you have such an incredible tunnel vision.” Sheriff Beth was also criticized last year after calling for five people of color who had been arrested for shoplifting to be put into warehouses “where we put these people who have been deemed to be no longer an asset.” During the Kenosha Police Department’s first press conference in response to the Blake shooting and subsequent murders committed at protests, Police Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed the unidentified victims in Tuesday night’s shooting for their own deaths, saying the violence was the result of the “persons” involved violating curfew.

Chris Orr, the executive director of the Wisconsin ACLU, says the actions of Beth and Miskinis “uphold and defend white supremacy, while demonizing people who were murdered for exercising their First Amendment rights and speaking out against police violence.”

Wisconsin Representative Greta Neubauer (D-Racine) said:

I have deep concerns regarding interactions caught on video between armed militia members and members of law enforcement, as well as why the alleged shooter was not arrested immediately despite being identified by countless people in the crowd. As this investigation moves forward, we need answers and accountability. I am filled with grief and anger over the deaths of members of our Southeast Wisconsin community at the hands of a self-organized, right-wing ‘militia’ group. I have heard from so many of you who feel the same.

Rittenhouse remains in police custody in Antioch.