United States: 17-year-old arrested after killing two people during protests against police violence
Steph Deschamps : August 27, 2020
A 17-year-old was arrested on Wednesday after two people were shot dead in the US town of Kenosha, where a dangerous cocktail of rioters and armed vigilantes formed following an apparent police blunder against a young black man.
A 17 year old teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, living in the neighboring village of Antioch, in the State of Illinois, about thirty kilometers, is suspected of being the author of the shots and was arrested with a view to his murder charge, local police said without giving further details. According to local media, he was seen in the presence of armed men posing as "militias" or "self-defense groups" eager to protect the city. County Sheriff David Beth has confirmed their presence in the area, without specifying whether the shooter was from those groups.
According to videos posted online, the young white man was armed with an assault rifle. On one of the tapes, he appears to be running away as another youngster collapses to the ground with a bullet in the head. In another, we see him being chased by a group, falling to the ground, turning the weapon in his hand. Shots are then audible.
President Trump, who has regularly defended the right to carry arms and self-defense, a speech dear to his electoral base, did not speak on this dramatic episode, emphasizing the excesses committed by the demonstrators.
For supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement, the individual on the other hand embodies the danger of private militias, who do not hesitate to replace the police, to the point of committing the irreparable. Among his victims, a protester named Anthony Huber, 26, presented as "a peaceful person" who tried to disarm him.
Kyle Rittenhouse has been a symbol of far-right violence in a racially-stricken United States for three months now. The 17-year-old was arrested and charged with homicide after killing two people during protests against police violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday.
Credit : Sudinfo