A 17-year-old from Illinois accused of killing two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has been extradited to stand trial on homicide charges, with sheriff’s deputies in Illinois handing him over to their counterparts in Wisconsin shortly after a judge approved the contested extradition.
“This Illinois court shall not examine any potential political impact a Wisconsin District Attorney potentially considered in his charging decision,” Novak’s six-page ruling said. He added that it is not for an Illinois judge to “reevaluate probable cause determined by a Wisconsin court.”
Immediately after Novak issued the ruling at the courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois, deputies with Illinois’ Lake County Sheriff’s Office picked up Rittenhouse and drove him five miles (eight kilometers) to the Illinois-Wisconsin border, sheriff’s office spokesman Christopher Covelli told The Associated Press. Rittenhouse was turned over to Kenosha County sheriff deputies at the state line at around 3:45 p.m., Covelli said.
Much of Rittenhouse’s Facebook is devoted to praising law enforcement, with references to Blue Lives Matter – the movement that supports police. He also can be seen holding an assault rifle in several photos.
He once participated in a youth public safety cadet program and a photo from that time showed him dressed in what appears to be a blue law enforcement uniform.
News of Rittenhouse’s arrest came as President Trump said Wisconsin officials had accepted federal law enforcement support following several days of unrest across the city in the wake of the police shooting of black man Jacob Blake.
The videos show the gunman stumbling and falling in the street before one pursuer took a flying kick at him, while another appeared to strike him with a skateboard.
Separate videos that captured the other two shootings showed a group of protesters tailing the gunman as he ran down the middle of the street. Someone in the crowd can be heard asking ‘What did he do?’ and another responds that the man had shot someone.