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TRUMP-SUPPORTING far right Kyle Rittenhouse faces additional homicide charges over his alleged role in armed violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which left two people dead and one seriously injured.
The 17-year-old was arrested on Wednesday, some 12 hours after the fatal shootings.
He was initially charged with reckless first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Joseph Rosenbaum, after handing himself in to Antioch Police.
Mr Rittenhouse is also charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Anthony Huber, while two counts of recklessly endangering safety were filed by prosecutors late on Thursday, according to court records.
The two men were killed on Tuesday during protests triggered by the earlier shooting of unarmed Black man Jacob Blake.
Police fired seven bullets into Mr Blake’s back in front of his children as he got in his car last Sunday.
The officer who shot Mr Blake was named on Thursday as Rusten Sheskey, who had been employed at the Kenosha police department for seven years.
Police appeared to mingle freely with far-right groups that had mobilised to oppose Tuesday’s demonstration.
Video footage showed officers thanking armed members of the self-styled “Kenosha Guard” for being there and giving them bottles of water.
The vigilante group had put a call out on Facebook for people to attend saying: “Any patriots willing to take up arms and defend our city tonight from the evil thugs?”
On Thursday former FBI agent Michael German said that white-supremacist groups and militia had infiltrated police departments for over two decades.
A report revealed the infiltration of departments including in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
“Obviously, only a tiny percentage of law-enforcement officials are likely to be active members of white-supremacist groups,” Mr German said.
“But one doesn’t need access to secretive intelligence gathered in FBI terrorism investigations to find evidence of overt and explicit racism within law enforcement.”
