What We Know About 17-year Old Kyle Rittenhouse, Alleged Killer Of Protesters

Rachel Maddow gives us the basic rundown of the tragic shootings at the Jacob Blake protests in Kenosha, WI, and there's more to learn about the shooter, now in custody and charged with first degree murder.
By Aliza Worthington — August 27, 2020

Rachel Maddow recapped the series of events that led to the arrest of Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white male from Antioch, Illinois for shooting three protesters and killing two of them in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

MADDOW: And the reason that is happening is because of a dramatic development in a story that we have all been following all week out of Wisconsin, specifically Kenosha, Wisconsin, where police shot an African-American man named Jacob Blake. They shot him multiple times in the back on Sunday evening while he was getting into a car with his three young children inside. There were visual images and video tape of that shooting captured and widely circulated on social media. The protests against that police shooting have been ongoing since Sunday night, since it happened. On Monday night the demonstrations in Kenosha turned fairly chaotic. Last night in Kenosha, police deployed tear gas. They used large armored military style vehicles to disperse protesters, and that is when a subset of protesters left the scene of the demonstrations last night and, as was widely documented last night as it happened, that they encountered a group of men with guns who were not police, who said they were there to protect a gas station.
[...]
In the video, you can see an armed white man running from protesters, falls and then while he is on the ground, while seated he starts shooting. One protester falls and never gets up. Another runs away, clearly hurt with a gunshot wound. You can hear him, there, screaming for a medic. At least three people were shot last night. Two of them were killed. Another person seriously wounded.

And the apparent shooter from that footage we just showed you is next seen walking away from the shooting scene still carrying this rifle walking towards police trucks with his hands raised. This is after the shootings, but he is not apprehended by police last night.

Today police announce they had arrested a suspect. A 17-year-old who is not being identified by the police because of his age. He has been charged with homicide. They have not yet said whether that person in custody is that person in the video. These videos circulating all last night and today have led a lot of people to become more angry about the situation in Wisconsin.

Here is what so many people are asking , and have been since the moment these videos began to circulate last night.

How is it possible that a white teenaged boy, with a LARGE semi-automatic weapon slung across the front of his body, his hands raised, walking away from a crowd of protesters, can walk TOWARDS police in armored vehicles, have the police ask him if people behind him are hurt, that teen WITH THE BIG GUN answers in the affirmative that YES, people behind him have been hurt, others are shouting TO THE POLICE about the teen WITH THE BIG GUN that he just shot people, and the WHITE TEEN WITH THE BIG GUN just gets to walk on past, unmolested by those same police?

It took police in his hometown of Antioch, Illinois to apprehend him?!?

Here is what we know about him now. His name is Kyle Rittenhouse, and he is being charged with first degree murder.

We know he looooooves President Trump.

We know he fancies himself quite the ammosexual militia dude. Seems a bit of a misogynist, too, just for fun. His TikTok handle was @4doorsmorewhores. Isn't that sweet?

But just for some real perspective...

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