Kenosha, Wisconsin Protesters marched on the streets of Kenosha for the fourth night in a row on Wednesday, but the protests were mostly peaceful, in contrast to the violent clashes that marked the previous nights. Earlier in the day, a white, 17-year-old police officer was arrested in the shooting deaths of two people during protests in Kenosha the night before. The disturbances were caused by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.
Kyle Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, about 15 miles[15 km]from Kenosha, was arrested in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree premeditated manslaughter in Tuesday’s attack that was largely recorded on mobile video. The shooting left a third person injured.
“I just killed one,” the gunman, with a semi-automatic rifle, could be heard at one point.
Also on Wednesday, state authorities identified the officer who shot Blake on Sunday as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department. Sheskey shot Blake while holding on to his shirt after officers first used a Taser without success, the Wisconsin Justice Department said. State agents later recovered a knife from the sideboard of the driver of the car, the department said.
In the wake of the killings during the protests Tuesday night, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers authorized the deployment of 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha, doubling the number of troops in the city of 100,000 halfway through Milwaukee and Chicago. The governor’s office said he was working with other states to recruit additional members of the National Guard and law enforcement officers.
BRENDAN MCDERMID / REUTERS
Evers, a Democrat, issued a statement urging those who wanted to exercise their rights to the First Amendment to “please do so peacefully and safely” and urging others to “please stay home and local first responders, legal action” and let members of the Wisconsin National Guard do their job. “
“A senseless tragedy like this can not happen again,” Evers said.
In Washington, the Department of Justice said it was sending more than 200 federal agents from the FBI, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The White House said up to 2,000 National Guard troops would be made available.
Authorities in Kenosha announced a 7-hour exit strike, though protesters again ignored it on Wednesday. Antioch set up an exit forum, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., the website said.
In Kenosha Wednesday and early Thursday, there were no groups patrolling with long guns as they had on previous nights, and Protestants stayed away from a courthouse that was the site of deviation in law enforcement.
Protestants marched along the Kenosha intersection where people were shot Tuesday night, stopped to pray and lay flowers.
The dead were identified only as a 26-year-old Silver Lake, Wisconsin resident and a 36-year-old from Kenosha. The injured person, a 36-year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin, was expected to survive, police said.
How Tuesday unpacked shots
According to witness accounts and video footage, police apparently let the gunman run past them and leave the scene with a gun over his shoulder and his hands in the air, as members of the crowd called for him to be arrested, to he had shot people.
One of the protesters in Kenosha Wednesday night was also there Tuesday night during the shooting. He told CBS Milwaukee branch WDJT-TV Kenosha police pushed peaceful protesters in the way of counter-protesters and police would have to be held accountable for what happened.
“I saw yesterday how a man was shot down,” Cairo Thomas said. “I saw that. Nobody chastised him. Nobody tried to burn down a property. They literally cut through the parking lot. And that 17-year-old killer, who he is, he’s a killer, that 17-year-old killer decided to fire. open up and shoot this man in the head. “
As the gunman managed to slip away, Sheriff David Beth described a chaotic scene full of stress, with a lot of radio traffic and people screaming, singing and running – conditions he said could cause “tunnel vision” among aldermen.
Rittenhouse was assigned to a public defender in Illinois for a hearing Friday about his move to Wisconsin. The public defender’s office had no comment. Under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.
Details about shooting suspect
Much of Rittenhouse’s Facebook page is dedicated to praising legal action, with references to Blue Lives Matter, a movement that supports police. He can also be seen as an assault rifle.
In a photo posted by his mother, he is wearing what appears to be a blue law enforcement uniform, as well as the type of hats worn by state troops.
The sheriff told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that militia members and armed guards had been patrolling the streets of Kenosha the past few nights, but he did not know if the gunman was among them. However, a video made for the shooting shows police throwing bottles of water from an armored vehicle into what appear to be armed civilians walking down the streets. And one of them seems to be the gunman.
“We appreciate you being here,” an officer was heard saying to the group through a loudspeaker.
Before the shooting, the conservative website The Daily Caller conducted a video interview with the suspected shooter for a run-down company.
“So people are being injured, and our job is to protect this business,” the young man said. “And part of my job is also to help people. If someone’s injured, I get in the way. That’s why I have my gun – because I can protect myself, of course. But I also have my med. -kit. “
Wisconsin Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, who is Black, said in an interview with the news program “Democracy Now!” that the shootings were not surprising and white militias were ignored for too long.
“How many do you see in this country armed guns, protesters, running in the State Capitols, and everyone just thinks it’s OK?” Barnes said. “People treat that as a kind of normal activity that people surround themselves with assault rifles.”
In Wisconsin, it is legal for people 18 and older to carry a gun openly without a license.
Blake, 29, was shot seven times in the back Sunday as he bent over in his SUV, three of his children were sitting inside. Kenosha police have said little about what happened other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute.
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