A visibly upset 17-year-old accused of fatally shooting two demonstrators in Wisconsin told officers at his local police station in Illinois where to find an assault rifle he said he had used just two hours earlier to shoot several people, according to police records.
Kyle Rittenhouse cycled through a range of emotions, crying and vomiting several times, as he described to police what happened late on Aug. 25 after he traveled to Kenosha, ostensibly to protect businesses from protesters following the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, the Antioch Police Department records show.
“I shot two white kids,” Rittenhouse said, adding that he had “ended a man’s life.”
Rittenhouse walked into the Antioch Police Department with his mother shortly before 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 26, according to records the department released to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Chicago Tribune on Friday.
He is accused in the killing of two protesters and the wounding of a third. Rittenhouse faces a misdemeanor charge of underage firearm possession in Wisconsin, in addition to first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a life prison sentence. He was extradited to Wisconsin on Friday.
Rittenhouse’s case has taken on a political edge, with some conservatives portraying him as a patriot who was exercising his right to bear arms during unrest. Others see him as a domestic terrorist who incited protesters by showing up wielding a rifle.
He started to cry after learning from family members about negative social media comments over the shootings, the records say. He said he was hit in the head and neck with a baseball bat and skateboard. Medics found small scratches on his arm, but no bruising or cuts.
Rittenhouse also told police that the firearm he used was in the trunk of his friend’s car, parked at the Rittenhouse’s family apartment in Antioch.
Police interviewed Rittenhouse’s 18-year-old friend, who told them he bought the rifle at an Ace Hardware in Ladysmith, Wisconsin, using money Rittenhouse had given him. The friend said the rifle was only supposed to be used for hunting and that he stored it in a safe at his stepfather’s house in Kenosha.
The stepfather told police that his stepson told him he had found himself a job guarding a business. Rittenhouse also told police that he had been hired as security for a Kenosha business and that he carried the rifle to protect himself. The owner of the business, Car Source, has told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he did not hire any security.
Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued he was acting in self-defense. Rittenhouse told police that he had been chased by a man whom he had tried to stop hitting windows.
The teenager had tried to surrender to a Kenosha police officer after the shooting but was told to go home, according to the records.
The Kenosha Police Department has said it was dealing with a chaotic scene when asked why Rittenhouse was not arrested immediately after the shooting. The police department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the records indicating Rittenhouse was told by an officer to go home.
Rittenhouse and his friend are not facing any charges in Illinois related to possession of the gun. Prosecutors there have said the rifle was “not immediately accessible” to Rittenhouse and his friend because it was locked up in the trunk, the police records say.
Rittenhouse’s friend was worried he would be in more trouble than Rittenhouse. According to the police records, the friend claimed Rittenhouse was defending himself, though he did not witness the shooting. The friend has not been criminally charged in either state.
He recalled telling Rittenhouse: “In all reality, you are not supposed to have that gun.”
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero, and it’s a crime that he’s locked up and facing charges. The prosecutors in Illinois and Wisconsin who are responsible for his imprisonment should both be arrested. Any parent would be proud to have such a wonderful son, who went to protect the innocent victims, and even when violently attacked kept his head and only fired on those who posed an immediate danger to him, not hitting any innocent people, or even guilty people who weren’t attacking him at that precise moment. And AP is a pack of liars whom nobody should ever trust on anything.
This article is a perfect example of why people no longer trust the press or have any respect for them.
Are we supposed to ignore all the violence, riots and looting that took place in Kenosha and elsewhere this summer (riots in which people were shot, run over, beaten, etc)?
Are we supposed to ignore the fact that Kyle Rittenhouse was being chased and that during that chase someone fired a gun behind him and that only then did Kyle turn around and fire his gun?
Are we supposed to ignore the mob of people who attacked Kyle, with one guy taking a lounging kick at his head, another striking his head with a skateboard and a third guy running at him with a gun in his hand?
The fact that Kyle can be charged with 1st degree murder is shameful.
The fact that the AP plays along with the absurdity of that charge is also shameful.
And the fact that The Yeshiva World publishes this ‘news article’ is doubly shameful. It’s shameful because the article is a sham and it’s shameful because any site that calls itself The YESHIVA World should hold itself up to a higher standard.
Kyle Rittenhouse is surely not a hero, and he is probably not a terrorist. He appears to be a teenage baby boy who had a fantasy about being a real-life adult cop and somehow got his hands on a gun and killed two people with it. I hope that if he is lawfully convicted of homicide, negligent or otherwise, and he will be given a sentence that discourages other baby boys with cop fantasies from acting out their fantasies with real guns.
The real cops in Kenosha had there hands full – or overloaded – on the night Rittenhouse did his shooting. Armed kibbitzers are a distraction for real cops, not a help.
@huju: I would respond to your points IF you had taken the time to inform yourself about what happened and then made an articulate argument based on that information. Unfortunately, it is clear that you have not actually looked into what happened that night or the reasons for why Kyle was armed and in Kenosha that night.
I will say this, though. We are talking her about a real human being and questions of truth and justice. Whether or not someone Kyle committed a heinous crime or was legitimately defending his life is a serious issue and needs to be treated seriously. Whether or not he deserves to go to jail or should never have been charged is a serious issue.
In short, there are REAL HUMAN BEINGS behind this story and REAL ISSUES THAT effect many people beyond Kyle Rittenhouse. That is why an informed, rational and mature response is what is required here (not the childish name calling and reckless recommendations for punishment of your ‘comment’).
Huju, Kyle Rittenhouse is a hero, and a far better person than you are. He went to protect the victims of the riot, whom the police were NOT protecting.
I sincerely wish you that your children should be like him. Halevai that all Jewish children should grow up like him.