President Donald Trump at a press conference late Monday weighed in when asked about Kyle Rittenhouse, the teen suspect who was arrested over the fatal shooting of two people amid riots in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
“Are you going to condemn the actions of vigilantes like Kyle Rittenhouse?” Trump was asked.
“We’re looking at all of it, that was an interesting situation, you saw the same tape as I saw,” Trump said. “And he was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like [it], and he fell. And then they very violently attacked him, and it is something that we’re looking at right now and it’s under investigation.
“I guess he was in very big trouble, he probably would’ve been killed,” the president added. “It’s under investigation.”
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, of Antioch, Illinois, was arrested on Aug. 26 after the deadly Wisconsin shooting that resulted in two deaths late Aug. 25.
A viral video appeared to show Blake being shot at close range.
Blake, who was the subject of a warrant for sexual assault, resisted arrest by Kenosha police officers before walking away from officers. He then walked to his car and was reaching inside before he was shot seven times in the back by a police officer.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice announced on Aug. 26 that Blake “admitted that he had a knife in his possession,” and that a knife was recovered from the driver’s side floorboard of his vehicle.
The arresting officers had been responding to a domestic incident involving Blake. A female caller had told the police that her boyfriend was present and wasn’t supposed to be on the premises. Blake is suffering paralysis from the shooting and is recovering in a Milwaukee hospital.
The police officer who shot Blake, Rusten Sheskey, has since been placed on administrative leave and is under investigation by the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation under the state’s Department of Justice.
