The teenage police enthusiast charged with murder in connection with shootings during riots on Tuesday night in Kenosha, Wisconsin, appears not to have fired the first shot in his conflicts with protesters.
The New York Times analyzed hours of livestream footage from the chaotic night and determined there were two separate shooting incidents, about one and a half minutes apart, involving involving Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, and other armed individuals.
- Two people were killed and one was wounded on the third night of fiery riots in Kenosha over the shooting of a black man by local police on Sunday.
- Christiaan Triebert, one of the Times journalists behind the video analysis, which was published on Thursday, later posted a play-by-play breakdown to Twitter.
The prelude: In the hours before Tuesday’s shootings, Rittenhouse was seen on video standing guard at Kenosha vehicle dealership with other armed civilians.
- “People are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business,” he told the Daily Caller reporter who later assisted the first shooting victim.
- Rittenhouse also chatted with police officers who gave him and the other men water out of appreciation and offered medical assistance to protesters, footage shows.
- Earlier in the day, Rittenhouse was photographed helping to clean graffiti from a high school near the Kenosha County Courthouse.
Shooting No. 1: The Times notes that Rittenhouse can be seen being chased through a parking lot by a group of unknown people.
- A gunman fires into the air, and, as Rittenhouse turns toward the gunfire, another pursuer from the same direction lunges toward him.
- Only then does Rittenhouse pull the trigger of his AR-15-style weapon, firing four times and appearing to shoot the man in the head.
- Rittenhouse walks back toward the victim and seems to make a phone call while a Daily Caller reporter attends to the man.
- Other people approach the scene, and Rittenhouse flees.
Shooting No. 2: Rittenhouse is again chased by several people as he jogs on a street away from the parking lot.
- He at one point trips and falls to the ground and fires four shots as three people rush him.
- One man appears to grapple with Rittenhouse for his rifle before being shot in the chest; another, who is carrying a handgun, is hit in the arm.
Rittenhouse then stands up and walks, with his hands in the air, toward police vehicles parked a block away.
- Bystanders call out to the officers that Rittenhouse had just shot people, but police drive past him without stopping on their way to assist the victims.
- During the shootings, at least 19 gunshots are fired nearby by unknown people, according to the Times.
The aftermath: Rittenhouse was arrested in Antioch, Illinois, his hometown, on Wednesday and charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
- He “fled the state of Wisconsin with intent to avoid prosecution” for homicide and is being held without bond, authorities said.
- According to the police, Rittenhouse was affiliated with a militia that sought to be deputized in recognition of their efforts to help officers defend Kenosha for rioters.
- After the shootings, Wisconsin’s governor, Tony Evers, said he was sending hundreds more members of the state’s National Guard to Kenosha, and local officials said a 7 p.m. curfew would continue until Sunday.
- The demonstrations in Kenosha on Wednesday night were smaller and largely peaceful.
The reaction: With nationwide unrest related to protests against racism and policing becoming a major issue in the 2020 election, commentators on the left and right responded very differently to news of the shootings.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, in a tweet echoing her Democratic colleague from Connecticut, claimed without evidence that Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist.”
“The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah argued on-air that police had let Rittenhouse walk away after the shootings because of racism.
- “How come Jacob Blake was seen as a deadly threat for a theoretical gun that he might have and might try to commit a crime with, but this gunman who was armed and had already shot people — who had shown that he was a threat — was arrested the next day, given full due process of the law and generally treated like a human being whose life matters?” Noah asked.
However, right-wing podcaster Steven Crowder countered on Twitter that Rittenhouse and Blake’s disparate treatment by police could be explained without reference to racism.
Fox News’ Tucker Carlson said on his show that Rittenhouse had understandably stepped in to fill a security vacuum created by local authorities.
“They stood back and watched Kenosha burn,” Carlson said in a segment that triggered widespread outrage. “So are we really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder? How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would?”
For National Review writer David Harsanyi and others on Twitter, the Times video analysis indicated the teen had acted in self-defense.
Who is Kyle?: Rittenhouse reportedly dropped out of high school and lived with his mother, a single mom and nurse’s assistant, in an apartment complex just south of the Wisconsin border.
- His now-deleted social media accounts appeared to reveal a passion for law enforcement, firearms and President Donald Trump.
- Rittenhouse’s TikTok bio read: “BLUE LIVES MATTER” and “Trump 2020.”
