Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with killing two men during the Kenosha, Wisconsin protests following the shooting of Jacob Blake, posted bail on Friday and is now out of jail. Rittenhouse, who lives in Antioch, Illinois, and has claimed self-dense, had his bail set at $2 million. Rittenhouse faces multiple counts of homicide for allegedly shooting three protestors with an AR-15-style rifle on Aug. 25. Two of the protesters, Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, died.
“Kyle Rittenhouse’s bond was posted this afternoon at about 2:00 pm which was set up through his attorney,” Kenosha County Sheriff’s Sgt. David Wright said in a statement to NBC News Friday. “He is no longer in custody at the Kenosha County Jail.” Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide for Huber’s death, first-degree reckless homicide in Rosenbaum’s death, and attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of Gauge Grosskreutz, reports TMJ4. He also faces two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.
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Rittenhouse claimed he traveled from Antioch to Kenosha to protect businesses and provide first aid. During a jailhouse interview with The Washington Post, Rittenhouse claimed he used an unemployment check to pay for the weapon. Since he was not old enough to buy it himself, he had a friend by the AR-15-style weapon for him, according to authorities. The friend, 19-year-old Dominick Black, was charged with two felony counts of intentionally giving a dangerous weapon to a minor, causing death, earlier this month.
In his Post interview, Rittenhouse said he did not go to Kenosha as a member of a militia group, but joined with other “strangers” who were at the protests. “Nobody was instigating me and I wasn’t instigating anybody else,” Rittenhouse claimed. “Everybody was calm with me and everybody was enjoying me. Like, I was helping everybody. So what I noticed is if you show the people respect they’re going to show you respect back.”
Later, Rittenhouse said he had no regrets for bringing a weapon to the protests. “No, I don’t regret it,” he said. “I feel like I had to protect myself. I would have died that night if I didn’t.”
The Kenosha protests came after the Aug. 23 shooting of Blake, who is Black. A police officer shot at the 29-year-old seven times as he got into his SUV, with three of his sons were sitting in the backseat. The confrontation was filmed by a bystander and went viral. Blake’s shooting sparked another wave of protests, including from sports teams. The Milwaukee Bucks were set to play a game three days after the shooting but boycotted the game. The rest of the NBA games were postponed for that day.
