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Teen Charged in Kenosha Killings Stalls Return to Wisconsin

Associated Press

   KENOSHA, WIS. - A judge agreed Friday to delay for a month a decision
   on whether a 17-year-old from Illinois should be returned to Wisconsin
   to face charges accusing him of fatally shooting two protesters and
   wounding a third during a night of unrest following last weekend's
   police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha.
   The judge in Waukegan, Illinois, postponed Kyle Rittenhouse's
   extradition hearing to Sept. 25 during a brief video conference that
   was streamed online. Rittenhouse asked for the delay in order to have
   time to hire a private attorney. He faces five felony charges,
   including first-degree intentional homicide and first-degree reckless
   homicide, and a misdemeanor charge for possession of a dangerous weapon
   by a minor.
   Rittenhouse did not appear during the livestreamed hearing. His current
   attorney, Lake County, Illinois, assistant public defender Jennifer
   Snyder, said Rittenhouse had spoken by phone with his mother since his
   arrest Wednesday.
   Lee Filas, spokesman for the Lake County state's attorney, said
   Rittenhouse plans to hire Los Angeles-based attorney John Pierce and
   that Rittenhouse's presence at Friday's hearing had been waived. Filas
   said the Sept. 25 hearing will look similar to Friday's, in that
   Rittenhouse will have the opportunity to either waive his right to an
   extradition hearing or proceed with one.
   Filas declined to comment on whether other charges were being
   considered for anyone who may have acted as an accomplice to
   Rittenhouse by driving him to the protest.
   Rittenhouse, a white teen who was armed with a semi-automatic rifle as
   he walked Kenosha's streets with other armed civilians during this
   week's protests, would face a mandatory life sentence if convicted of
   first-degree intentional homicide. Under Wisconsin law, anyone 17 or
   older is treated as an adult in the criminal justice system.
   He was taken into custody on Wednesday in Antioch, Illinois, the city
   about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Kenosha where he lives.
   The shootings late Tuesday were largely caught on cellphone video and
   posted online. The shooting by police on Sunday of Blake, a 29-year-old
   Black father of six who was left paralyzed from the waist down, was
   also caught on cellphone video. That shooting made Kenosha the latest
   focal point in the fight against racial injustice that has gripped the
   country since the May 25 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police
   custody.
   Three nights later, Rittenhouse was armed and on the streets of
   Kenosha, saying that he was protecting businesses from protesters,
   according to widely circulating cellphone footage.
   The criminal complaint said that Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, of Kenosha,
   following Rittenhouse into a used car lot, where he threw a plastic bag
   at the gunman and attempted to take the weapon from him. The medical
   examiner found that Rosenbaum was shot in the groin and back -- which
   fractured his pelvis and perforated his right lung and liver -- and his
   left hand. He also suffered a superficial wound to his left thigh and a
   graze wound to his forehead.
   Rittenhouse then ran down the street and was chased by several people
   shouting that he just shot someone before he tripped and fell,
   according to the complaint and video footage. Anthony Huber, 26, of
   Silver Lake, was shot in the chest after apparently trying to wrest the
   gun from Rittenhouse, the complaint said.

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