Rittenhouse, accused of violating bond, going before judge

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KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — An Illinois 18-year-old charged with killing two people during street protests in Kenosha last summer faces a judge Thursday with prosecutors asking that he be re-arrested.

Prosecutors say Kyle Rittenhouse violated conditions of his $2 million bond by failing to inform the court of his current address. They’ve asked Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder to issue an arrest warrant and hike Rittenhouse’s bond by $200,000.

Rittenhouse’s attorneys say threats have forced him into hiding, and they say they offered to give prosecutors Rittenhouse’s current address if it stays under seal.

Prosecutors have refused, saying the public is entitled to know where Rittenhouse is and that the defense hasn’t presented any evidence of an immediate threat.

Rittenhouse came to Kenosha in August from nearby Antioch, Illinois, as hundreds of people were protesting the police shooting that left Jacob Blake, a Black man, paralyzed. Prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who is white and was 17 at the time, answered a militia group’s call on social media to protect Kenosha businesses. He is accused of killing Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounding Gaige Grosskreutz with an AR-15-style rifle the night of Aug. 25.

Rittenhouse has maintained he fired in self-defense, and some conservatives have rallied to his side, portraying him as a patriot exercising his right to bear arms. Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement have painted Rittenhouse as a trigger-happy white supremacist.