Wendy RittenhouseWiki – Wendy Rittenhouse Biography
Wendy Rittenhouse is the mother of Antioch, Illinois, teenager Kyle Rittenhouse, who is on trial for the shooting deaths of two men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the wounding of a third.
A single mother who has worked as a nursing assistant, Rittenhouse’s mother has defended him in interviews. She was controversially by his side when he was photographed with members of the Proud Boys organization in a Wisconsin bar, but his lawyers say he is not affiliated with that group. As such, Wendy Rittenhouse has become a controversial figure who has repeatedly given interviews to advocate for her son.
Kyle Rittenhouse was a police supporter who filled his Facebook page with images of weapons and law enforcement defense; his lawyers say he went to Kenosha to protect people and property, but prosecutors charged him with criminal manslaughter and other serious charges. Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz. His lawyers claim self defense.
Regardless, Wendy Rittenhouse has become a controversial figure due to Kyle’s age and her comments on the case; He was only 17 when the shooting occurred, although he is being tried as an adult. His jury trial began on Monday, November 1, 2021.
The shootings broke out on August 25, 2020, during Kenosha, Wisconsin , upset over the Jacob Blake police shooting . Blake, 29, survived the Aug. 23, 2020, shooting by Kenosha police and is paralyzed, his family’s attorney said. The Kenosha County district attorney later acquitted the officer who shot Blake.
Rittenhouse’s mother has worked in healthcare; Divorced from Kyle’s dad, Wendy Rittenhouse once sought a protection order when Kyle was threatened by a classmate
Rittenhouse’s mother’s Facebook page indicated that she works in healthcare and supports law enforcement. Her name is sometimes given as Wendy Lewis, but at court she was given it as Wendy Rittenhouse. The Washington Post described her as a single mother and a nursing assistant.
According to Forbes , she is “a single mother of three” who says she slept late the day of the shootings “after a 16-hour shift as a nursing assistant.” Previously, she requested “a protective order from the police in January 2017, alleging that a classmate of her son had been threatening him and calling him ‘dumb’ and ‘stupid’,” The Post reported. Heavy reached out to Wendy Lewis / Rittenhouse for comment via her Facebook page, but has received no response.
According to The Washington Post, Kyle Rittenhouse was a “high school dropout who viewed law enforcement officers as his personal heroes.” However, the Chicago Tribune reported It was unclear if Rittenhouse attended the school. He attended Lakes Community High School in 2017-18 but is no longer enrolled and went to Lake Villa School for one semester in 2017, the newspaper reported.
A profile in the New Yorker reported that Wendy is divorced from Kyle’s father, Mike Rittenhouse, whom she married in 2000. They had three children, including Faith and McKenzie.
Mike was a machine operator struggling with alcohol, drugs and unemployment and was charged with domestic battery against Wendy, but denied the charges, which were later dropped, according to The New Yorker, which said Wendy and her children lived in a shelter for the homeless. for a while.
According to The New Yorker , Mike is now sober and wants to be more connected to his family, but Wendy continued to struggle financially, even being evicted. She is dyslexic and has had health problems, The New Yorker reported, so Kyle, as a teenager, worked to help support the family.
Rittenhouse and her mom talked about social media in the hours after the shootings; She was with him when he posed with members of the Proud Boys group
According to The Chicago Tribune , Rittenhouse and his mother “became obsessed with comments about them on social media” after the shootings. Video shot at the Antioch Police Station captured those moments after Kyle turned himself in. His mother was present, according to The Tribune, and she said she needed a lawyer, but he replied, “Can you stop talking, Mom?”
Wendy said the police were trying to contact her father and told Kyle it was a “train wreck” and put his head in her hands. He started cursing the Facebook posts, saying that people called Kyle a “piece of shit” and her a “mother of shit.”
She told him to disable Snapchat.
At age 18, in January 2021, Kyle and his mother went to Pudgy’s Pub in Mount Pleasant after he was indicted in court. according to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which says he “had three beers.”
While there, he posed with men associated with the Proud Boys group and made the “OK” sign, which is a hand signal associated with white supremacy. according to The Kenosha News , which reported that he and his mother were accused of meeting with the Proud Boys in Florida. The defense denied that Rittenhouse was affiliated with the Proud Boys or white supremacy.
Some donations raised in the case went to help Wendy with “living expenses such as food, rent and medical care for her children,” The Journal Sentinel reported. After he was released on a $ 2 million bond, Wendy told WISN-TV, “” He’s with me, he’s not leaving my side. Kyle is a strong young man, I couldn’t be more proud of him. “
She added: “I wish she had stayed home, but no one should have ever been to Kenosha. People rioted, looted, burned the city. She declined to discuss the weapon, which prosecutors say she had illegally. “If I didn’t have that gun, I’d be dead,” his mother said. he told WISN . “When I heard the charges, I thought, ‘How?’ You watch the videos, it’s all in self-defense. My son didn’t go there to hurt anyone, he was there to help people. “
Kyle’s mother defended him in an interview and stated that “he is not a monster”
Wendy Rittenhouse sat down for a televised interview in which she defended her son, according to ABC 7 Chicago. “They need to see the video,” Wendy Rittenhouse said of the people criticizing her son. “It is not a monster.” “The last text message I sent to Kyle was, ‘Where are you? Are you okay?’ He said, ‘Yes, I’m fine. Doing doctor. That was about 11:30 and then I fell asleep, ”his mother said. “Then I jumped up and knew something was wrong. I knew I had to go get him. “
She continued: “If he didn’t have that gun, he would have been dead,” Wendy Rittenhouse said. “Point blank. It was all in self-defense. I saw it. If it wasn’t his mother, I would have said the same thing: it was in self-defense. He was chased by a group of people.” He added: “People only need to watch one video. And they need to go step by step. He didn’t, he didn’t do anything wrong. He was attacked by a mob. The first to the second and the third “.
“The police should have helped the companies instead of being helped by a 17-year-old boy. The police should have been involved with these people who lost their businesses. They should have stepped up, “Wendy said, according to KBTX3.
Photos on Wendy Rittenhouse’s Facebook page showed him in a police cadet uniform.
Photos on Rittenhouse’s mother’s Facebook page show him in what appears to be a police cadet uniform and a firefighter uniform. One image contains the words “We Support Blue” and a heart with a thin blue line flag.
A now-deleted Facebook post indicates that he was part of the Grayslake-Lindenhurst-Hainesville Public Safety Cadet Program in 2017. A photo shows Rittenhouse participating in a program for youth who showed an interest in law enforcement. Heavy has contacted the police department for comment. The Washington Post reported that he was in a cadet program through the Antioch Fire Department and the Grayslake Police Department and also worked as a lifeguard for the YMCA.
In 2018, according to the Post, he started a Facebook fundraiser for Humanizing the Badge, a nonprofit organization to “forge stronger relationships between law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.”
Rittenhouse’s TikTok page showed in a now-deleted video that he was in the front row at a rally in January for President Donald Trump. “Trump meeting!” the legend said. It was one of only two videos on his page. The rally took place in Des Moines, Iowa. Rittenhouse worked as a lifeguard at a YMCA, according to Buzzfeed .
The Trump campaign said he had nothing to do with it. “We are not responsible for the private conduct of people at our rallies any more than … all the crazy people who have been involved with the Obama / Biden campaigns or other things,” Kellyanne Conway said, according to The Tribune.
On a second TikTok page, according to The Chicago Tribune , Rittenhouse posted a “video of himself firing a semiautomatic rifle at a target.” It appears to match the rifle he was carrying when the shots were fired.
Rittenhouse’s Facebook page was full of pro-law enforcement memes, support for Blue Lives Matter, and gun photos
Screenshots of Rittenhouse’s Facebook page, which has now been removed, show that her profile photo indicated her support for Blue Lives Matter. It showed Rittenhouse holding a large gun with the words “Blue Lives Matter” circled around it. His Facebook cover photo showed him with a large gun. The photos were littered with law enforcement graphics, some honoring fallen officers and others with a thin blue line flag.
People saved the screenshots of your page before it was removed. A photo on the suspect’s Facebook page showed him in a thin blue-line flag shirt in 2018, when he was in his mid-15s. Another old photo showed him camouflaged as a child.
One photo showed him with a large gun and sneakers with the American flag. He has opened Kenosha County Traffic Cases from August 19 for charges of speeding on the freeway and operating without a valid license. Those records also give his address as in Antioch.
According to Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post, Kyle Rittenhouse “tried to join the Marine Corps in January, but was disqualified after discussing his options with recruiters.” The military did not disclose the reason for the disqualification.
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