Kyle Rittenhouse, the armed man that shot and killed a protester in Kenosha, Wisconsin last night acted in self defense according to video footage of the incident. In the video below you can see a man with a rifle running away from a group of people, one of those people throws something at him, the chase continues and only after the man catches up with him does he open fire. People are already trying to spin this on social media to make it look like the chase was in response to the second shooting, but that is not the case. That footage was immediately followed by this footage (https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1298488431358758912) where you can see the foot chase down the street towards where the second shooting took place, that chase continued as people yelled "get him" and "he just shot someone" until it appears that one of his pursuers knocked him down at which point he started shooting wildly at anyone he perceived as a threat (https://twitter.com/BGOnTheScene/status/1298502384654651392).
We do not know much about Rittenhouse, but from social medial he looks like a wannabe cop and a Blue Lives Matter supporter. The Antifa and Black Lives Matter crowd will want to think that their guy died a hero fighting white supremacy, so they are likely to portray the shooter as a white supremacist militiaman that went there looking for an excuse to shoot black people. That could be the case. We know nothing about his views beyond the obvious fact that he likes the police. We do know that he was seen with a group of militia earlier in the evening and that group said that they were there to defend private property (https://www.facebook.com/229855298387888/videos/636700277255679). The Antifa/BLM crowd were clearly not happy to see them. The deceased was seen arguing with the militia at times. We do not know how things escalated into people chasing Rittenhouse. Whatever inspired the chase does not appear relevant at this point. The shooter was clearly defending himself.
Was the second shooting justified? We believe that it was because someone tried to hit him with a skateboard. In his shoes he had every reason to think that the crowd would try to kill him because he was outnumbered and someone tried to hit him with a weapon. There will be those that say he was shooting indiscriminately at anyone near him when he fell on the ground, but in a situation like that you can't be too careful when people are trying to smash your head in. We don't think he had time to figure out who was who and select his targets accordingly. This is not like when Jeremy Christian killed Ricky Best in Portland, Oregon because he felt threatened after another man shoved him to the ground repeatedly. Christian had no reason to think anyone was trying to seriously injure him, but Rittenhouse did. Christian also never attempted to retreat, but Rittenhouse was running away as fast as he could and only when he could not escape did he start shooting.
We did not know he was a wannabe cop until after writing this article. He looks like a puny little dude and that rifle literally saved him for a world of hurt. We don't support people showing up to back the police, but after already going out to figure out he was defending himself thinking he might be some shopkeeper or something we can't reverse ourselves just because he backs the blue.
UPDATE: The shooter is believed to be a man named Kyle Rittenhouse. In this video he says "I'm Kyle by the way." https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1298548721152491521 It turns out he is one of those Blue Lives Matter people. We did not know that until just now.
UPDATE: This article has been re-written after the video below made it clear that what was thrown at Rittenhouse was not a Molotov cocktail as originally believed. Turns out is was shiny and the light caught the shiny object at the right angle to look like fire from a distance.
UPDATE: According to Tariq Nasheed, he gave the cops a special hand signal when they arrived and that is why he was not arrested https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1298556876804612096 so we are not sure exactly how to categorize him at this time.
UPDATE: Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged with murder, but the basis for this charge is not clear. The videos clearly show that he was defending himself. On top of all the video, he was just 17 years old. This kid obviously grew up idolizing cops and before he lived long enough to know better tried to be one. We do not support blue backers, but we don't support charging people with crimes they did not commit just to appease the public either.
UPDATE: Following his arrest, Rittenhouse's lawyer issued a statement:
"This young boy was not only attacked on the streets of Kenosha, hes been attacked in the media and social media all over the damn world," L. Lin Wood told CBS News." It's wrong. He's a 17-year-old boy. He was not there to create trouble, but he found himself with his life threatened and he had the right to protect himself with self defense and now he finds himself accused of murder." https://chicago.cbslocal.com/2020/08/27/criminal-complaint-against-kyle-rittenhouse-details-prosecutors-version-of-events-in-kenosha-shooting-that-killed-2-wounded-1/