Kenosha shooting, DC protest: Kyle Rittenhouse to remain in Illinois as thousands descend on Washington

Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged with homicide in the killing of two people at protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, earlier this week, will remain in custody in Illinois after a judge agreed to delay a hearing on his extradition to Wisconsin.

Rittenhouse faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge and five other charges for shooting three people, two fatally, during unrest Tuesday night in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake, a Black man, seven times in the back on Sunday, which has left Blake paralyzed from the waist down.

Rittenhouse did not appear for the hearing Friday in Lake County Circuit Court.Another hearing on the status of his extradition has been set for Sept. 25.

The hearing comes after Kenosha saw a calmer night on Thursday, with volunteers cleaning up after nights of arson and vandalism and a prayer service held along Lake Michigan.

“We’re still in the thick of many challenges but there will be a coming together around a table in coming days,” Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser said.

Here’s what we know Friday:

Kyle Rittenhouse to remain in Illinois 

In a less than 10 minute hearing livestreamed Friday, a public defenders for Rittenhouse requested to waive his presence at the hearing and for more time so that he could hire his own legal team.

“We also arranged for him to have a phone call with his mother this morning,” an attorney for Rittenhouse, Jennifer Snyder, said during the proceedings.

Rittenhouse, from Antioch, Illinois, is facing six charges in Wisconsin, the most serious of which is first-degree intentional homicide. Under Wisconsin law, Rittenhouse is charged as an adult, and he would face life in prison if convicted of the first-degree intentional homicide charge.

Rittenhouse also faces charges of first-degree reckless homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety and one count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.

Videos shared on social media show various angles of how Rittenhouse used an AR-15-style rifle to shoot and kill Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and injure Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, shortly before midnight.

Visual timeline: Violence in Kenosha after police shooting of Jacob Blake

In some of the video, Rittenhouse, who is white, is seen walking toward police vehicles after the shootings with his hands up in an apparent surrender, but police drive past him. He was arrested Wednesday in Antioch.

Rittenhouse told a reporter before the shooting he had come to Kenosha from his home in Antioch to defend property during the unrest. 

Jacob Blake’s father: My son is ‘a human being’ but ‘has not been afforded the rights of a human’

In an interview with CNN on Friday morning, Jacob Blake, Sr., opened up about his son’s recovery and described “two justice systems” in which his son was shot as he walked away from police while Rittenhouse was not arrested after fatally shooting two people.

“He’s a person. He’s a human being. He’s not an animal.” Blake told CNN. “But my son has not been afforded the rights of a human.”

Blake told the Chicago Sun Times Thursday that his son was handcuffed to his hospital bed, even though he’s paralyzed from the waist down. 

Blake has tried not to tell his son about the unrest in Kenosha. He has gotten good news, though, Blake said.

“The thing that made him smile was the Milwaukee Bucks. That made him smile,” Blake said. The Bucks were the first of several pro sports teams this week to sit out their games in the wake of the shooting as they demanded justice for Blake and the officer responsible be held accountable. Blake said the team sent his son a signed jersey, too.

Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris also spoke with Blake’s family for almost an hour, Blake said. “They were so comforting that you almost forgot how the situation as playing out,” Blake said. President Donald Trump has not reached out to his family, Blake said.

Moving forward, Blake said his grandchildren, who were in the car that his son was walking toward when police shot him, will have to deal with emotional distress of seeing the violence that happened to their father.

“Pop pop, why did they shoot my daddy in the back?” Blake said his eldest grandson asked him.

Calm night Thursday in Kenosha

After violent unrest earlier in the week, Kenosha was calmer Thursday night. 

More than 200 people prayed at Harbor Park along Lake Michigan. The pastors who organized the event said they wanted the city to be known for its love of God, not the violence that has plagued its streets in the last week.

Earlier in the day, Kreuser and Mayor John Antaramian pledged to take on the challenges of racial inequality at the root of the protests.

“Unity becomes one of the main aspects of what has to happen in this community, and that unity is only going to happen if all of us work together,” Antaramian said.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared at a news conference and said the different treatment of Blake and Rittenhouse by police fit a pattern.

‘We really just need prayers’: Jacob Blake’s mother says son would be ‘unpleased’ with destruction in Kenosha

“We demand justice in the country,” the civil rights icon said.

Attorneys representing Blake and his family also drew a sharp distinction between the two cases. 

“They shot him seven times in the back in front of his children,” the attorneys statement read, referring to Blake. 

But when it came to Rittenhouse, “local law enforcement and National Guardsmen allowed him to walk down the street with his assault weapon,” said civil rights attorney Ben Crump and co-counsels Patrick Salvi and B’Ivory Lamarr.

The protest have drawn national attention, and President Donald Trump said earlier this week “federal law enforcement and the National Guard” will be sent to Kenosha to restore law and order.

On Thursday, Gov. Tony Evers announced National Guard troops from Arizona, Michigan and Alabama will arrive to assist Wisconsin’s troops at his request. Evers already had sent more than 500 Wisconsin guard members to Kenosha this week.

A small group continued to protest in downtown Kenosha after curfew Thursday, which went into effect at 7 p.m.

Protesters made their way through the streets with stops at Library Park and the Civic Center Park. Livestreams from people on the scene showed some arrests of protesters. It also showed people waiting for friends who were arrested earlier to be released. 

Close to midnight a group of less than 50 protesters remained.

Protesters outside the White House make themselves heard inside as Trump delivers RNC speech

Raucous protesters chanted and banged drums near the White House as more than a thousand guests of the president were gathered inside in advance of President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. 

Shortly before 10:30 p.m., while Ivanka Trump was in the middle of her speech to introduce her father, protesters began using bullhorns, whistles and bells while chanting “Black Lives Matter.”

The crowds — chanting “Black Lives Matter” and “No justice, no peace!” — were gathered between the White House and National Mall and in Black Lives Matter Plaza, the epicenter of the protests earlier this year over racial injustice amid the death of George Floyd and others at the hands of law enforcement.

During his speech, Trump mentioned the Kenosha protests and and recent unrest in other cities.

“In the strongest possible terms, the Republican Party condemns the rioting, looting, arson and violence we have seen in Democrat-run cities like Kenosha, Minneapolis, Portland, Chicago, New York and many others,” he said.

Thousands to March on Washington for racial justice

Thousands of people are expected to gather in Washington to demand changes to law enforcement and voting rights as America reels from police killings of Black people this year that fueled protests across the country. 

The march, organized in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minnpeapolis, is led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network, marking the 57th anniversary of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. 

March on Washington 2020: What to expect, how to stay safe amid the coronavirus pandemic

“The reason why George Floyd laying there with that knee on his neck resonated with so many African-Americans is because we have all had a knee on our neck,” Sharpton told USA TODAY. “What we are saying is that these two laws represent taking some of the knee off but the systemic racism is going to take more than two laws.”

Contributing: Matthew Brown, Maureen Groppe, David Jackson, Nicquel Terry Ellis and N’dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAY; Sarah Hauer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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