Kyle Rittenhouse faces curfew charge related to Kenosha shooting

MILWAUKEE — Prosecutors have charged a 17-year-old Illinois teen accused of shooting three people during a protest in southeastern Wisconsin this summer with violating curfew that night.

Kyle Rittenhouse was charged in August with multiple counts, including reckless and intentional homicide, endangerment and being a minor in possession of a firearm. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported prosecutors added violating curfew the night of the shootings to the list of charges on Monday. The offense is a civil citation punishable by forfeiture.

Prosecutors allege Rittenhouse, who is white, left his home in Antioch, Illinois, and traveled to Kenosha, Wisconsin, after learning of a call for militia to protect businesses in that city on Aug. 25. Kenosha was in the throes of several nights of chaotic street demonstrations after a white officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, in the back during domestic disturbance, leaving Blake paralyzed.

Rittenhouse opened fire with an assault-style rifle during the protest that night, killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz. Rittenhouse has argued he fired in self-defense. Conservatives have rallied around him, generating enough money to make his $2 million cash bail.

The Journal Sentinel reported police arrested about 150 people for curfew violations during the protests.

The Rittenhouse family in mid-December set up a website, FreeKyleUSA.com, in part, to sell merchandise such as sweatshirts, mugs, and cellphone covers to raise money to pay for his defense.

But within days of promoting the merchandise, Rittenhouse’s civil attorney, John Pierce, tweeted that the initial orders were held up, new orders would not be accepted and that his account with Printful, a major custom printing drop-shipper, had been canceled, the Journal Sentinel reported.