US prosecutors are looking to tighten the bond agreement of the teenager charged with killing two people during anti-police brutality protests last year, after they said he flashed a white supremacist hand gesture and posed for photos with the far-right Proud Boys group at a bar while out on bail.
Kyle Rittenhouse is alleged to have shot dead two protesters and injured another amid the fallout from the Kenosha police shooting of black man Jacob Blake in August. He was released from jail in November after posting a $2 million USD bail.
On Wednesday (local time), the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office asked a judge to keep Rittenhouse, 18, from consuming alcohol, using white supremacist signs, and spending time with members of known white supremacy groups.
The request came after prosecutors said Rittenhouse was seen with a member of his family at a bar in Wisconsin on 5 January, the same day he pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the Kenosha shootings.
Bar security camera footage shows him wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with the phrase ‘free as f**k’ and flashing the ‘OK’ hand sign that has been appropriated by white supremacist groups. Prosecutors said he was also “loudly serenaded” by a group of adult men who sang the Proud Boys’ anthem.
“The defendant’s continued association with members of a group that prides itself on violence, and the use of their symbols, raises the significant possibility of future harm,” The Washington Post quoted prosecutors as saying.
Rittenhouse, described as being an enthusiast of right-wing militant groups in the US, reportedly went to Kenosha last year to protect it from “rioters” during the anti-police brutality protests.
Lawyers for Rittenhouse said the shootings were an act of self-defence.
The protests had erupted after Mr Blake was shot multiple times in the back by a white officer at point blank range as his three young sons watched.
Mr Blake survived, but doctors have said he may never walk again.
With AFP.
