David Beth, the Kenosha County sheriff, brushed aside suggestions that law enforcement officials had been supportive of Mr. Rittenhouse and others like him. “Our deputies would toss water to anybody,” he told reporters.
According to charging documents filed in Kenosha County on Thursday, Mr. Rittenhouse clashed with demonstrators who congregated in the area near a car dealership just before midnight on Tuesday. After Mr. Rosenbaum, one of the victims, threw an object at Mr. Rittenhouse and scuffled with him, shots rang out, the documents said, citing several videos that investigators had reviewed. As Mr. Rosenbaum lay on the ground, Mr. Rittenhouse made a call on his cellphone, saying, “I just killed somebody.”
People scattered, the documents said, with someone heard on a video yelling, “Get him! Get that dude!” In the chaos, Mr. Rittenhouse tripped and several men ran toward him. Mr. Huber, another of the men who died, appeared to try to grab his gun, the documents say, before Mr. Rittenhouse shot him. Mr. Rittenhouse shot a third person, Gaige Grosskreutz, after Mr. Grosskreutz, who appeared to be holding a handgun, put his hands in the air and moved toward Mr. Rittenhouse, the documents say. Mr. Grosskreutz survived and is hospitalized.
Few details were known about Mr. Rittenhouse’s life in Antioch, where he lives with his mother in an apartment complex. It is uncertain whether he is enrolled in school.
Mr. Rittenhouse had two profiles on TikTok. On one, he posted a picture from a rally for President Trump in Iowa. On the other, he posted support for Blue Lives Matter, guns and Mr. Trump. “Bruh, I’m just tryna be famous,” he wrote in his bio summary on the account, which had attracted 26 followers.