An Illinois judge has granted prosecutors’ request to extradite 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse to Wisconsin, where he faces homicide charges for allegedly shooting three protesters in Kenosha, killing two of them.
Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the Aug. 25 shooting of 36-year-old Joseph Rosenbaum and first-degree intentional homicide in the shooting of 26-year-old Anthony Huber.
Rittenhouse traveled to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois, and walked the city that night armed with an AR-15 rifle, during the unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man. He joined others carrying guns who said they were there to guard private businesses, several of which had been burned in the days following the shooting.
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Rittenhouse has been held in Lake County, Illinois since shortly after the shootings, where his defense team has fought extradition. Rittenhouse’s lawyers have argued the teenager was acting in self-defense.
Judge Paul Novak did not address those arguments Friday, ruling only that Rittenhouse could be extradited.
“According to Illinois law, this Illinois court shall not determine if Rittenhouse has a valid self-defense argument for the Wisconsin charges,” Novak wrote. “These are matters that can be raised in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, through pre-trial proceedings or during trial.”
One of Rittenhouse’s attorneys has previously raised the possibility of appealing the decision to extradite.
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