Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old Illinois teen accused of shooting dead two Kenosha protesters, has had his bail set at $2 million after being extradited to Wisconsin to face homicide charges.
A court commissioner set the bail amount during Rittenhouse’s initial appearance in Kenosha County on Monday afternoon.
Kenosha County prosecutors say Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded a third man Gaige Grosskreutz on the streets of Kenosha on August 25.
Rittenhouse turned himself in to police in his hometown of Antioch the morning after the shootings.
He was extradited to Wisconsin on Friday despite appeals from his attorneys.
His attorney, Mark Richards, asked Court Commissioner Loren Keating to set bail at $750,000 and place Rittenhouse on electronic monitoring.
Prosecutors, however, asked Keating to set bail at $2 million saying Rittenhouse has every reason to flee.
John Huber, whose son Anthony was one of the two people killed, made an emotional appeal for the judge to go much higher than the $2 million the state sought.
John Pierce, Rittenhouse’s lawyer, said on Twitter that he planned to appeal the ruling to the Illinois Court of Appeal.
‘We will never surrender. Kyle will be set free and cleared of all charges,’ Pierce said.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys had sought to prevent the teenager from being extradited to Wisconsin to face charges.
They argue that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense and have portrayed him as a courageous patriot who was exercising his right to bear arms during unrest over the police shooting of black man Jacob Blake.
The most serious charge Rittenhouse faces in Wisconsin is first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a life prison sentence.
He is also charged with attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third protester.
The teenager had traveled to Kenosha on August 25 in a self-appointed role to protect the streets of Kenosha where the police shooting of Jacob Blake had sparked unrest during protests.
According to prosecutors and court documents, Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum after Rosenbaum threw a plastic bag at Rittenhouse, missing him, and tried to wrestle his rifle away.
While trying to get away in the immediate aftermath, Rittenhouse was captured on cellphone video saying ‘I just killed somebody.’
According to a complaint filed by prosecutors, someone in the crowd said: ‘Beat him up!’ and another yelled, ‘Get him! Get that dude!’
Video shows that Rittenhouse tripped.
As he was on the ground, Anthony Huber hit him with a skateboard and tried to take his rifle. Rittenhouse opened fire, killing Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, who was holding a handgun.
A day after the shooting, Rittenhouse surrendered to police in his hometown.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, citing an arrest report it went to court to obtain after its public records request was denied, reported last week that Rittenhouse turned himself in less than two hours after the shooting and told an officer he had ‘ended a man’s life’.
The report said firefighters were called when Rittenhouse – described as alternating between calm, fits of crying and vomiting – had trouble breathing at one point.
Rittenhouse told police the rifle used in the shooting was in the trunk of a friend’s car, according to the report.
unfriggenbelievable
they’re setting him up for execution