A judge has declined prosecutors’ request for a new arrest warrant to be submitted for Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.
Last summer, now 18-year-old Rittenhouse unleashed domestic terrorism in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Illinois native, armed with an AR-15-style rifle, traveled to Kenosha, where hundreds were protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake. While there, he ended up fatally shooting two protestors.
According to AP News, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger wrote in court documents that prosecutors found out Rittenhouse was no longer living at his Antioch, Illinois apartment when a court notice was returned as undeliverable. The outlet reports that detectives in Kenosha went to the man’s home on Feb. 2. and discovered a different person was living there. He said he’d been living in the apartment since the middle of December last year.
Rittenhouse’s legal claims that he moved out from the location because he was continuously receiving death threats, which pushed him into hiding at an undisclosed “safe house.” The move reportedly happened following Rittenhouse’s release from jail, with the help of conservative groups who posted his initial $2 million bail. His attorneys say they will only give out Rittenhouse’s location if prosecutors keep it private.
“It is of concern to the defense that any information regarding Kyle’s location being publicly available would result in immediate harm to the Rittenhouse family,” one of Rittenhouse’s attorneys, Mark Richards, wrote in a filing. Binger denied Richards’ deal, saying that he is a murder defendant and his address must be public record. When Rittenhouse’s layers gave Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder Rittenhouse’s current address, it was the only address of a post office box. Schroeder replied to Rittenhouse’s attorneys, saying, “That was completely unacceptable.” Schroeder also rejected prosecutors’ request for a $200,000 bail increase for Kyle Rittenhouse, AP News reports.
Ever since he was jailed for his crimes, Rittenhouse has been showing strange and what could be deemed as an incriminating activity. In January, the man was seen drinking at a Mount Pleasant bar where two men posed with him, making white supremacist hand gestures. The men at the bar also serenaded him with a song created by the neo-fascist, white nationalist group Proud Boys.
