The Kenosha Police Department charged an additional 55 people following the violent August 2020 riots that gripped the Wisconsin city.
The crimes included “arson, burglary, conspiracy to commit theft of narcotics, possession of firearm/ammunition by a convicted felon, battery, criminal damage, and disorderly conduct,” the department said Friday. Six individuals facing arrest are juveniles, and around half of those charged are Kenosha residents.
The department expects more arrests throughout the coming months.
“Kenosha Police Department Detectives are painstakingly working with our partners at the local, state and federal levels to continue to identify those who committed crimes and to bring forth charges via the criminal justice system in either State or Federal court,” the department wrote.
It continued: “There are many more suspects to be identified who may well be from outside the area making identification more difficult, but we are not going to let that dissuade us — the victims of the violence deserve our efforts.”
KENOSHA RIOTS LEAVE CITY WITH $11M IN DAMAGE: FIRE CHIEF
By late August 2020, police jailed 175 people after rioters descended on the city, burned down buildings, vandalized property, and attacked uniformed officers. They seized 20 guns, and drugs were recovered while the city was under a state of emergency.
The violence stemmed from the police shooting of Jacob Blake, who is black.
Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran who was responding to a call about a domestic disturbance, allegedly shot him at least seven times in the back. Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down after the shooting. Sheskey and several other officers were placed on administrative leave.
The officers involved would not face charges as Blake was armed with a knife during the incident, District Attorney Michael Graveley said in January. Charges pending on Blake himself were also dismissed.
“Very important — Jacob Blake, while actively resisting, arms himself with a knife. … It is absolutely incontrovertible that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife during this encounter,” Graveley said. “Incontrovertible. Most incontrovertible, because Jacob Blake, in all of the times he spoke to DCI, admits he possessed a knife.”
During the unrest, Kyle Rittenhouse was arrested after allegedly killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, in addition to wounding a third victim, Gaige Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse was reportedly seen fleeing a mob of people with an AR-15 strapped to his body.
Lawyers for the 18-year-old have argued that he was acting in self-defense and that the case was “one-sided.”
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“In less than 48-hours, the Kenosha County District Attorney, without any meaningful investigation, charged Kyle with intentional homicide and other serious felonies — ignoring the clear video evidence of self-defense,” a webpage dedicated to releasing Rittenhouse read. “The God-given, constitutional right of self-defense is on trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin.”
The riots in Kenosha followed the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in May 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for over eight minutes. Floyd’s death sparked mass demonstrations and riots, costing an estimated record of $1 billion in insurance claims.
