Teenager charged with homicide in protest shootings

Video Credit: Reuters - Politics
Published on August 26, 2020 - Duration: 01:45s

Teenager charged with homicide in protest shootings

[NFA] A teenager was arrested and charged with homicide on Wednesday in connection with gunfire that killed two people and wounded a third during protests over the police shooting of a Black man in the Wisconsin city of Kenosha.

This report produced by Chris Dignam.


Teenager charged with homicide in protest shootings

A 17-year-old identified as Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide on Wednesday, after two people were shot and killed and a third was seriously wounded during protests over the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where Black Lives Matter demonstrators clashed with self-appointed militias armed with rifles.

REPORTER: "Sheriff, was he part of a militia?" SHERIFF: "I don't even know the man's name." At a Wednesday news conference, Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth did not directly discuss the teenager, saying his department was not investigating the shootings from overnight.

"'Cause he's in custody in Illinois.

He's not in custody here." Social media videos showed the shooter - who authorities evidently believe is Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois - was a white man with a rifle.

In one video, a crowd pursues someone carrying a rifle, whom they believe shot someone moments earlier.

The armed individual falls to the ground and appears to shoot at those approaching him at close range.

One of those who appears to be shot does not get up.

That video then shows the suspected shooter with his hands up, walking past several armored police vehicles without being stopped.

Kenosha has been rocked by civil unrest since Sunday, after cell phone video showed police shooting 29-year-old Jacob Blake multiple times in the back at close range.

His family's lawyers said the shooting has left him paralyzed from the waist down.

The violence overnight prompted some elected officials to call for a reinforcement of National Guard troops, while President Donald Trump said he was "sending federal law enforcement" officers.

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