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Kenosha Shooting Suspect Faces Homicide Charges In Protesters' Deaths

Demonstrators revisit the site where a protester was killed in Kenosha, Wis. Earlier in the week, Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters. He was charged on Thursday with six criminal counts, including first-degree intentional homicide.
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Demonstrators revisit the site where a protester was killed in Kenosha, Wis. Earlier in the week, Kyle Rittenhouse shot and killed two protesters. He was charged on Thursday with six criminal counts, including first-degree intentional homicide.

Kyle Rittenhouse, the Illinois teenager accused of shooting and killing protesters in Kenosha, Wis., has been charged with six criminal counts including felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley filed the charges against Rittenhouse on Thursday, according to court . Rittenhouse is also being charged with two counts of recklessly endangering safety and possession of a dangerous weapon while under 18, which is a misdemeanor.

The most serious charge, first-degree intentional homicide, is punishable by life imprisonment.

Seventeen-year-old Rittenhouse was on Wednesday in connection with the previous night's shooting, which left two protesters dead and another injured. The incident happened during the third consecutive night of after a police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, seven times at close range.

Blake's attorney earlier this week that he is paralyzed from the waist down.

In a recorded before the shootings, a person who appears to be Rittenhouse describes himself as part of a local militia whose job was to protect businesses in Kenosha.

WBEZ's Dan Mihalopoulos has reported that Rittenhouse, a former youth police cadet, is a supporter of law enforcement and the "Blue Lives Matter" movement.

A series of viral videos from Tuesday night captured allegedly involving Rittenhouse, who is white.

The following day, Rittenhouse was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and taken into custody by police in Antioch, Ill., about 15 miles southwest of Kenosha.

Antioch police said in a on Wednesday that Rittenhouse was in custody of the Lake County Judicial System and pending an extradition hearing to transfer to Wisconsin.

A filed Thursday identifies the shooting victims as Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber. A third man, Gaige Grosskreutz, was transferred to the hospital with what Kenosha police as "serious but non-life threatening injuries."

A friend of Huber's told the that the 26-year-old was a fearless skateboarder and great father to his girlfriend's daughter. Rosenbaum, who was 36, is by his sister as a jokester and compassionate father who leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rachel Treisman (she/her) is a writer and editor for the Morning Edition live blog, which she helped launch in early 2021.
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