Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of killing two people and injuring another in a shooting during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was once part of a police cadet program that steered young students toward a career in law enforcement.
The 17-year-old is a former Public Safety Cadet, according to Grayslake, Illinois, Police Chief Phillip Perlini. Due to Rittenhouse’s age, state law prohibited police from making further comment. He also reportedly participated in an Antioch Fire Department cadet program.
Rittenhouse, who is from Antioch, Illinois, located 15 to 20 miles away from Kenosha, was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree intentional homicide. He is in custody in the Lake County Judicial System pending an extradition hearing to transfer custody from Illinois to Wisconsin, according to a news release from the town’s police department.
According to court records, Rittenhouse worked as a part-time lifeguard at a YMCA in Lindenhurst, Illinois. He was among those furloughed in March amid the declining economy due to the coronavirus pandemic. He also received a traffic ticket last week in Kenosha County for over-speeding and a citation for driving a vehicle without a license.
His social media presence shows Rittenhouse was a supporter of pro-police movements, issuing posts about officers who had fallen in the line of duty in Chicago and other places. He posted pictures of himself and another individual holding guns. “Duty. Honor. Courage. Blue Lives Matter,” reportedly read the backdrop of the photo showing a blue-lined, pro-police flag. In 2018, he reportedly started a social media fundraiser for Humanizing the Badge, which Rittenhouse described as a nonprofit organization looking to “forge stronger relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.”
Rittenhouse appears to also have a Snapchat that shows him at the center of protests and a TikTok account, which display videos of individuals assembling both a rifle and a shotgun while also shooting in target practice. The TikTok account also shows him visiting a Trump rally in Des Moines, Iowa, earlier this year, though the president is reportedly not seen in the post.
Wendy Rittenhouse, his mother, is reportedly a single mother working as a nurse’s assistant, according to court records. In 2017, she sought to obtain an order of protection for her son, claiming he had been bullied by a classmate who also threatened to hurt him.
Protests and violence that broke out in Kenosha, a Wisconsin city of roughly 100,000 residents, have been rising ever since viral video emerged of 29-year-old Jacob Blake being shot several times by police at close range during an arrest on Sunday. The Wisconsin Department of Justice, with the help of the United States Justice Department, is investigating the shooting. Rittenhouse is too young, according to the Chicago Tribune, to carry a gun in the state of Wisconsin.
