Protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake have raged for two nights in Wisconsin, with two people being shot dead on Tuesday. Now, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse has been arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of the two Kenosha victims. According to CBS News Chicago, Rittenhouse was arrested in Antioch, Illinois, and is also being charged with being a fugitive from justice. He is currently being held in the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center, which is near Vernon Hills.
The shootings that Rittenhouse is charged in connection to came during protests over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black Wisconsin man who was shot seven times in the back by a White police officer. Footage of the incident was caught by eyewitnesses. Once the video went viral, mass protests broke out, with rioting following. Rittenhouse was one of many armed civilians who joined in opposition to the protesters. Pictures and videos of the teen have been circulating online, confirming his presence at the scene.
Videos by PopCulture.com
This is Kyle Rittenhouse.
He’s not from Wisconsin, he’s from Illinois.
He went to Kenosha with a rifle to kill people.
This is what a domestic terrorist looks like and this is what Trumpism is doing to American children. @SenTomCotton open your eyes to the real terrorists! pic.twitter.com/5PkkwXnDJr
— 👔Dan Whitfield For US Senate 2020 | Arkansas (@DanWhitCongress) August 26, 2020
Rittenhouse is alleged to be a member of an extremist group known as the “Boogaloo Bois,” though this appears unconfirmed by authorities. According to USA Today, the Boogaloo Bois are an online community of extremists — leaning both left and right-wing — who want to start a second civil war in the United States.” The group is reportedly deemed a national threat. The Boogaloo Bois have been labeled a “white supremacist group” by some, but authorities who’ve investigated the groupstated that they’ve found the group has members from different races and opposing political views.
Alex Newhouse — who is the digital research lead at Middlebury Institute’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism — spoke with USA Today about the group, and clarified that it is not always easy to tell which side of a protest a self-professed Boogaloo Boi would be on. “There’s a lot of overlap and the boundary is blurry because they both evolved together. It is very difficult to know if the ‘boogaloo boi’ you see standing in the middle of the street at a protest is there in solidarity or to incite violence.”
