When the Eastern Conference leading Chicago Bulls take on the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night, they’ll likely still be riding the high that came from an epic 19-point comeback over the Boston Celtics on Monday. At one point when the game was all but over late in the third quarter, with under a minute to […] Chicago Bulls to be tested in their biggest weakness vs. Sixers – Da Windy City – Da Windy City – A Chicago Sports Site – Bears, Bulls, Cubs, White Sox, Blackhawks, Fighting Illini & MoreRead More

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Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich records Cameo greetings in his Ravenswood Manor home in a moment from “Being Blago.” | ABC Owned Television Stations

Rod and Patti Blagojevich open up their home for an addictive Hulu show that expertly recaps their saga and peers into their lives now.

Home from prison and with his famous mop-top hairdo now mostly silver and gray, former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is in his Ravenswood Manor home, recording a birthday Cameo video for a guy named Andrew. The entire message is supposed to be “Andrew, you are f—ing golden,” a play on Blagojevich’s legendarily self-incriminating recording in which he said the U.S. Senate seat he controlled was, well, f—ing golden.

What follows is a truncated version of Blagojevich’s message.

“Here’s what Corey wants me to say to you: Andrew, you are f—ing golden. Happy Birthday, buddy. Now that’s all he wants me to say and yet I feel like it’s not enough. … I want to let you know, I didn’t let you down, I didn’t break a single law, cross a single line, it was all politics, routine political conversations initiated by then President-elect Obama. … Eight years into that wretched journey, who’d a thought a Republican president, Donald Trump, would reach in to rescue me, a Democrat governor, and restore my freedom. … President Trump is the only president in American history to have fired and freed the same guy. Even Abraham Lincoln didn’t do that.”

He. Just. Can’t. Help. Himself.

Illinoisans and Chicagoans in particular have been Blago’d and Blago’d and Blago’d through the decades and one can understand why some would be just fine never hearing from or seeing Rod Blagojevich again, and yet the four-part Hulu documentary series “Being Blago” (premiering Friday) is an addictively digestible, darkly funny, well-photographed and expertly edited work that serves as a reminder of the wild rollercoaster that has been Blago’s personal and professional life — and a fascinating update, as Blagojevich literally opens the door to his home and allows the filmmakers to capture him and his reluctant-participant wife Patti as they try to move forward with their lives.

AP
Patti Blagojevich and husband Rod attend the Illinois State Fair in Springfield in 2007.

Problem is, only one of them really wants to move forward. The other one is still glad-handing the public, crying woe-is-me and openly speculating about running again, even though the state Senate has passed a resolution prohibiting him from running for any office in Illinois. (Blago’s lawsuit to overturn that ruling is pending.)

“Being Blago” is produced by ABC Owned Television Stations, with Justin Allen and Matt Knutson as co-directors and co-executive producers, and it features a plethora of familiar faces providing insights and analysis, including radio/TV personality Roe Conn, the hilarious Maze Jackson, legendary ABC-7 investigative hound Chuck Goudie and former ABC-7 great Paul Meincke. (In the interest of transparency: I do not appear in this documentary and had nothing to do with it, but I am a paid contributor to “Windy City Weekend” on ABC-7.)

The production values include some nifty touches like an opening title card with two portraits of Blago combined to make him look like Harvey Dent/Two-Face; a brilliant use of graphics as commentary in one sequence. and a corny but amusing scene in which actors portray Chicago barkeeps and customers who explain the ins and outs of Democratic Machine politics and the power carried by certain alderpersons, including one Dick Mell, who served in the Chicago City Council for nearly 40 years and not so coincidentally happens to be Blagojevich’s father-in-law.

Mostly, though, this is a straightforward, fast-paced, traditional documentary, alternating between news clips and old interviews and election night reports chronicling Blagojevich’s quick rise to power and spectacular fall from grace, and present-day glimpses of Blago’s life in which he’s still that fascinating combination of charismatic and irritating, upbeat and reflective, narcissistic and self-deprecating. (Typical quote: “I gotta tell you: I was a f—ing good governor.”)

Meanwhile, Patti speaks with admirable candor and sincerity as she discusses the difficulties within the family when her husband came home after eight years in prison, creating a situation with “four people who really didn’t know each other. The girls were grown up by the time he came home. When he left, they were still children. We went from eight years of nothing to 24/7.”

And when you’re with Rod 24/7, Rod would be the first to tell you that might be too much Rod. At one point, as he discusses a possible run for office one day even as Patti has made it clear she’ll be gone if he makes that move, Rod tells his interviewers, “I was so blessed and fortunate to fall in love with somebody like Patti. Thank you so much honey, for walking through life with me.” Patti laughs and says, “For the cameras …” and keeps on laughing as she says, “What’s the point?”

Rod: “What’s the point? No, I’m grateful to you.”

Patti, still chuckling: “OK.”

We’re often inside the Blagojevich home — the oversized bungalow structure with the raised “Evita” staircase just made for impromptu press conferences — as Blago putters about, cleaning up dog poop on the back patio and taking the crew into a family room to say, “This is where I said, ‘f—ing golden.’ Right there on the floor.”

You half expect to see a plaque commemorating the spot.

Blagojevich talks about his prison experiences, including performing onstage with his band, G Rod and the Jailhouse Rockers (Lord help us), and seems to be constantly on the go, making appearances at churches and bars, all the while pumping hands and trading jokes as if he’s never left the campaign trail.

As “Being Blago” makes clear, he really never has stopped campaigning and most likely never will.

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Two people were killed, and four others were wounded, in shootings Nov. 2, 2021, in Chicago. | Sun-Times file

An off-duty Chicago police officer was fatally shot inside a home near O’Hare International Airport, and a man was fatally shot in Roseland.

Two people were killed, and four others were wounded, in shootings Tuesday in Chicago, including an off-duty Chicago Police officer who was fatally shot inside a home near O’Hare International Airport, according to Chicago police.

About 7:15 p.m., police and an ambulance responded to reports of a person shot in the 8500 block of West Winona Street, said fire spokesman Larry Langford. An off-duty officer, 44, who was shot in the body, was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in “very critical condition,” Langford said. He was pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital.

Hours prior, a man was fatally shot in Roseland on the Far South Side. He was near a gangway about 1 p.m. in the 100 block of West 113th Street when at least two people approached and one of them fired shots, Chicago police said. The 31-year-old was struck in the head, arm, chest and buttocks. He died at the University of Chicago Medical Center. He was identified as Antoine Toler by the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Four others were wounded in shootings citywide.

Two people were killed, and four others were wounded, in shootings Monday across Chicago.

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Bob Levey/Getty Images

Jorge Soler hit his third home run of the Series, a go-ahead three-run drive in the third off Luis Garcia, and Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson also connected.

HOUSTON — Most of the season, it just seemed this wasn’t their year.

They dropped their first four games, and soon injuries piled up. They lost their most dynamic player before the All-Star break. They were stuck below .500 in August.

Yet out of nowhere, suddenly, these Atlanta Braves transformed themselves and took off.

Jorge Soler, Freddie Freeman and the Braves breezed to their first World Series championship since 1995, hammering the Houston Astros 7-0 Tuesday night in Game 6.

How proud The Hammer himself would’ve been.

Max Fried threw six shutout innings in the signature pitching performance of the Series. Soler, a July acquisition who tested positive for COVID-19 in the playoffs, backed him early with a monster three-run shot for his third homer against the Astros.

Freeman hit an RBI double and then punctuated the romp with a solo home run in the seventh that made it 7-0.

By then, it was a total team effort. Ailing star Ronald Acuna Jr., the dynamo of Atlanta’s future, bounded from the dugout to join the celebration for Freeman, the longtime face of the franchise.

A mere afterthought in the summer heat among the land of the Giants, White Sox and Dodgers, but magnificent in the Fall Classic.

Soler tapped his heart twice before beginning his home run trot after connecting off rookie Luis Garcia in the third inning, sending the ball flying completely out of Minute Maid Park. Dansby Swanson also homered and by the final out, nothing could stop them.

Not a broken leg sustained by starter Charlie Morton in the World Series opener. Not a big blown lead in Game 5.

Steadied by 66-year-old manager Brian Snitker, an organization man for four decades, the underdog Braves won the franchise’s fourth title.

Consider it a tribute to the greatest Braves player of them all, Mr. Hank Aaron. The Hall of Fame slugger died Jan. 22 at 86, still rooting for his old team, and his legacy was stamped all over this Series.

For 72-year-old Houston manager Dusty Baker, a disappointment. But for many fans still rooting against the Astros in the wake of their 2017 sign-stealing scandal, some satisfaction.

Major credit for the Braves, too, goes to general manager Alex Anthopoulos. Undaunted by Acuna’s knee injury, he pulled off a flurry of July trades that brought the Fab Four to the outfield — NL Championship Series MVP Eddie Rosario, Adam Duvall, Joc Pederson and Soler.

But even in the Analytics Era, guided by a GM fully versed in new-age ways, the path these Braves took wouldn’t add up in any computer. Especially with how things looked in midseason.

“At that time, we were searching,” third baseman Austin Riley said before Game 6. “I think there’s no question about that.”

Minus Acuna, Atlanta wasn’t over .500 for a single day until the first week in August. The Braves finished 88-73 for the 12th-best record in the majors and fewest victories among playoff teams; their win total was the lowest for a World Series champion since St. Louis’ 83 in 2006.

Plus, the agonizing history of sports in Atlanta, a city where no team had won a title in the four major pro sports besides 1995.

The Braves couldn’t convert a three games-to-one advantage over the Dodgers in the NL Championship Series last year. The Hawks fell short in the NBA Finals last season. And then there was the big one, the Falcons blowing a 28-3 lead to the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

But these Braves, not this time.

Favored in spring training to win their fourth straight NL East title, the Braves lost Acuna to a torn knee in July. Earlier, 2020 Triple Crown contender Marcell Ozuna was injured and later placed on leave while Major League Baseball investigated him under its domestic violence policy. Projected ace Mike Soroka never got back from Achilles injury.

Going into the playoffs, their bullpen was a crazy patchwork.

They had a guy who made his big league debut in October, a lefty who was pitching in 2019 for the Texas AirHogs in a now-defunct independent league and a righty who was stacking boxes at an appliance warehouse a decade ago. Toss in a rookie who was off the roster a week ago as he watched Game 1 at a hotel in suburban Atlanta.

For sure, plenty of fans around the country were rooting hard against Jose Altuve and the Houston crew. Many continue to heckle them as the “Cheatin’ Astros” for an illegal sign-stealing scheme on the way to their 2017 title, and those feelings might last forever.

Certainly a lot of people were cheering for Baker. A World Series winner as a player and a highly respected figure on and off the field, he wasn’t able to check the final box on his resume as a championship skipper.

The Braves’ crowns have been spread out over more than a century.

The 1995 Atlanta champs featured five future Hall of Famers — rookie Chipper Jones, aces Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and John Smoltz, and manager Bobby Cox. Those rings were the lone pieces of hardware that resulted from 14 straight division titles.

The 1957 Milwaukee Braves were led by Aaron in his only NL MVP season. His 44 was painted in large numbers on the outfield grass at Truist Park, and Baker and Snitker often mentioned how much he’d meant to them.

There were the 1914 Boston Braves, too, dubbed the “Miracle Braves” back in the day. In last place on the Fourth of July, they surged to win the pennant, then upset a heavily favored team — the Philadelphia A’s — to earn their nickname.

Sound familiar?

The Braves’ previous title came at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, their first home after moving from Milwaukee to the Deep South in 1966. Then there was Turner Field before the team uprooted from downtown and decided to sprawl into the suburbs.

Truist Park was packed and the outside plazas were jammed over the weekend, and pulsating crowds filled Minute Maid Park.

Quite a change from last October. Only a limited capacity was permitted for that World Series as the Dodgers beat Tampa Bay at a neutral-site stadium in Arlington, Texas — that followed a total shutout for fans during a regular season shortened because of the coronavirus.

Now, all of baseball waits to see whether spring training is on deck in a little over three months. A squabble between owners and players threatens soon to shut down the sport.

In the meantime, the sport can savor a year in which things, slowly, started to get back to normal.

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An off-duty Chicago police officer was shot and taken to the hospital in “very critical condition,” according to the fire department. | Sun-Times file

The man was shot in the body and transported to Lutheran General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

An off-duty Chicago Police officer was fatally shot inside a home near O’Hare Airport on Tuesday evening, according to Chicago police.

About 7:15 p.m., police and an ambulance responded to reports of a person shot in the 8500 block of West Winona Street, said fire spokesman Larry Langford. An off-duty officer, 44, who was shot in the body, was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in “very critical condition,” Langford said.

He was pronounced dead after being taken to the hospital, police said.

Two hours later, Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability tweeted that investigators were responding to the scene of an “off-duty officer-involved shooting.”

This story will update.

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Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff (left) addressed the Kyle Beach story Tuesday. | AP Photos

“[I want to] make this a better and safer place so that there isn’t another Kyle Beach,” Jets GM Kevin Cheveldayoff said Tuesday.

In his first news conference during the fallout of the Blackhawks’ sexual assault scandal, Jets general manager and former Hawks assistant GM Kevin Cheveldayoff apologized to Kyle Beach for the Hawks’ 2010 inaction.

“What Kyle went through is unacceptable and intolerable,” Cheveldayoff told reporters in Winnipeg on Tuesday. “Kyle was failed by a system that should’ve helped him, but did not. I am sorry that my own assumptions about that system were clearly not good enough.”

Cheveldayoff is the only participant in the Hawks’ now-infamous May 2010 meeting (in which Beach’s alleged assault was discussed) who remains employed by an NHL team, having been cleared of discipline by commissioner Gary Bettman.

Cheveldayoff clarified Tuesday he was pulled into the meeting late and thought the incident being discussed was “along the lines of harassment, [like] inappropriate texts, unwanted advances,” not sexual assault. He left the meeting expecting it would nonetheless be investigated by higher-ranking Hawks executives.

He also said he recently talked to former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy, a longtime leading voice for abuse victims in hockey.

“I am fortunate that I have an opportunity to be someone that still has a chance to make a change in the game,” Cheveldayoff said. “[I want to] to help grow and learn and try to make this a better and safer place so that there isn’t another Kyle Beach.”

Kane apologizes

Patrick Kane’s comments last week after general manager Stan Bowman’s resignation and Beach’s public step forward were criticized for his defense of Bowman, whom he called a “great man” who “did a lot for me personally.”

After his return to play Monday, however, Kane went out of his way to apologize.

“I feel bad about the last time I talked,” he said. “Obviously, I put my personal experience with management ahead of the way Kyle was treated by them.

“[I] don’t want to diminish or overshadow anything that Kyle went through with our organization. Listen, it takes incredible courage and pride for him to come forward and deal with what he’s dealt with. We’re all thinking about him.”

Settlement talks begin

Hawks lawyers met with Susan Loggans, Kyle Beach’s lawyer, for about an hour Tuesday to begin settlement talks regarding the still-pending lawsuit. Loggans described the meeting as “respectful and cordial” in a statement to the Sun-Times.

“It was decided that an opportunity may exist to move forward,” Loggans added. “However, both parties will confer with their clients and meet again in the near future. No resolution occurred today, but a positive [dialogue] has begun.”

The Hawks have requested using a third-party mediator and pausing court filings for 60 days to keep negotiations progressing forward.

Hossa’s night postponed

In a joint decision between the Hawks and Marian Hossa, Hossa’s “legacy night” at the United Center — originally scheduled for next Tuesday against the Penguins — has been postponed.

“Everyone agreed that this is an important time for our organization to reflect rather than celebrate,” the Hawks said in a statement.

Crevier signs

The Hawks on Tuesday signed prospect defenseman Louis Crevier to a three-year entry-level contract with an $851,000 salary cap hit.

Crevier, a towering 6-8 defensive defenseman who stuck around longer than expected in training camp in September, is currently playing his fourth year of junior hockey in Quebec, so his contract won’t officially begin until next season.

A former seventh-round pick, he’s one of several later-round Hawks selections from the 2020 draft who have significantly increased their stock over the past year. Fifth-rounder Isaak Phillips is already in the NHL and third-rounder Wyatt Kaiser has become a star at Minnesota-Duluth.

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Carla Sumerlin, mother of Torrence Sumerlin Jr. stands near the area where her son was murdered holding a button of her sons face, in 2300 block of West Polk in Aug. 20 of this year, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. | Tyler LaRiviere/Sun-Times

Torrence Sumerlin, a former Whitney Young baseball player who later played on a college team that won a NAIA World Series, was meeting someone to sell a pair of Air Jordans when he was murdered in Tri-Taylor in August.

Carla Sumerlin feels like she needs to do something to help catch her son’s killer.

So last week she sent letters to everyone on the 2400 block of West Polk reminding them that her son’s life was taken on that block and asking for anyone with information to contact the police.

Torrence Sumerlin, 26, an avid gym shoe collector, was there about 10:20 a.m. on Aug. 26 to meet someone to sell a pair of Air Jordans.

Instead two people who’d been hiding nearby rushed him as he stood by his open trunk and shot Sumerlin in the chest.

Carla Sumerlin said she worried about previous such meetups to sell shoes and would call her son and ask him, “You OK? You want me to stay on the phone? Where are you?” and her son would assure her he was in a safe area.

“I always worried about him, but I never thought anyone would kill him over a pair of shoes,” she said.

The assailants never even grabbed the shoes, said Carla Sumerlin, speculating that her son’s size and physique might have spooked the would-be robbers.

“He was an athlete. He worked out every day,” she said.

Provided
Torrence Sumerlin Jr., who played baseball for Whitney Young High School and Southeastern University, with his mother, Carla.

Torrence Sumerlin played baseball at Whitney Young High School and was a 2013 graduate from the school, which held a funeral service for him in August. He played for several colleges before graduating from Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. He was a member of the first team in Southeastern University history to win the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics World Series in 2018, the school said.

More recently he’d been working as an Uber Eats delivery driver and, shortly before his death, had purchased a two-flat building on the Near West Side as an investment property and the first step of a plan to create generational wealth for his family.

“His whole thing was building generational wealth,” Carla Sumerlin said. “He would preach it to his brothers and cousins, and he was starting out. He didn’t even have any kids yet.”

He was a driving force behind starting a business over the summer with his mother to purchase and rent out other properties in Chicago. It’s name, they decided, would riff off their own last name: Sum It Up LLC.

“He took his job at Uber Eats seriously to save money to invest,” said Carla Sumerlin, who lived with her son about six blocks from where he was murdered and works as an account analyst at an investment firm in the Loop.

He was an honor roll student in high school and college, an athlete, a person with goals, she said.

“We did everything to keep him away from this type of environment, he was the best, and he still became a victim of it,” she said.

“To be taken so tragically over some gym shoes doesn’t seem like something I can get over that easy. It just doesn’t seem fair, and I just want them caught,” she said.

Torrence Sumerlin knew a lot of police officers through playing in various men’s baseball leagues, and detectives working the case told Carla Sumerlin they’d received a bunch of calls from others in law enforcement asking about the case.

“They told me, ‘We’re working hard on it,'” she said.

On Tuesday, Carla Sumerlin was heading to visit her son’s grave with his girlfriend, who is Mexican, to celebrate Day of the Dead and leave some of his favorite things, including a baseball and chicken from Hooters.

“We brought him into a Hooters once when he was little, like 5 or 7, and he looked at me and said, ‘Mom, I don’t think we’re supposed to be in here,’ and he was just mesmerized by the girls, and then he had the chicken and it’s been his favorite place ever since,” Carla said with a laugh.

Police on Tuesday said no one was in custody for the murder. Anyone with tips should call 833-408-0069 or 312-746-7330.

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Kyle Rittenhouse, center, is accused of killing two people and wounding a third during a protest over police brutality in Kenosha in August 2020. | Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP pool

But Rittenhouse’s attorney told the jury that his client acted in self-defense.

KENOSHA, Wis. — Jurors heard starkly different portrayals of Kyle Rittenhouse — instigator or victim — in opening statements Tuesday at his trial on charges of shooting three men on the streets of Kenosha during a turbulent protest against racial injustice.

A prosecutor said Rittenhouse set the bloodshed in motion when he started a confrontation with the first man gunned down that night, and killed him with a bullet to the back.

But Rittenhouse’s attorney told the jury that his client acted in self-defense after the first man tried to grab Rittenhouse’s gun and others kicked him in the face and clubbed him in the head with a skateboard.

“You as jurors will end up looking at it from the standpoint of a 17-year-old under the circumstances as they existed,” defense attorney Mark Richards said.

Rittenhouse, now 18, is charged with killing two men and wounding a third during the summer of 2020 with an assault-style rifle. The one-time aspiring police officer could get life in prison if convicted.

The teenager traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, just across the Wisconsin state line, after protests broke out over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer. Rittenhouse said he went there to protect property after two nights in which rioters set fires and ransacked businesses.

The first witness was his sister’s boyfriend, Dominick Black, who bought the rifle for Rittenhouse months before the shootings because he was not old enough to own one at the time.

Black testified that he and Rittenhouse went to downtown Kenosha to help protect a car dealership from property damage, after cars at another lot owned by the same business were burned the night before. Black said he thought nobody would start trouble if they saw him with his assault-style rifle.

Black said he was on the rooftop when he heard gunshots but didn’t know Rittenhouse was involved until Rittenhouse called and said, “I shot somebody, I shot somebody.”

Afterward, Black said, Rittenhouse was “freaking out. He was really scared. He was pale, shaking a lot.” Black said Rittenhouse told him that he acted in self-defense because “people were trying to hurt him.”

In his opening statement, prosecutor Thomas Binger described the unrest in Kenosha as “two of the roughest nights that our community has ever seen,” and said outsiders were drawn to the city “like moths to a flame.”

Yet Binger repeatedly stressed that amid the hundreds of people in Kenosha and the anger and chaos in the streets, “the only person who killed anyone is the defendant, Kyle Rittenhouse.”

“When we consider the reasonableness of the defendant’s actions, I ask you to keep this in mind,” Binger said, after explaining to the jury that a claim of self-defense can be valid only if Rittenhouse reasonably believed he was using deadly force to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm.

The prosecutor said that it is not known exactly what words were said, but it is clear that Rittenhouse started a confrontation that caused the first person shot that night, Joseph Rosenbaum, to begin chasing Rittenhouse across a parking lot.

Binger emphasized, too, that Rosenbaum, 36, was killed by a shot to the back after he threw a plastic bag. The prosecutor noted that the first two bullets hit Rosenbaum in the lower extremities, causing him to fall forward.

Richards, the defense attorney, argued that it was Rosenbaum who “lit the fuse that night.” Rosenbaum yelled an expletive at Rittenhouse and lunged for his gun before Rittenhouse fired at him, according to the defense.

Rittenhouse fired four shots in less than a second because Rosenbaum was “trying to take Kyle’s weapon from him to use against him,” Richards said.

Binger, the prosecutor, said that after shooting Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse fled the scene instead of rendering aid, despite portraying himself as a medic earlier in the night. But Richards said Rittenhouse didn’t stop to help because the crowd wanted to “kill him,” and instead ran toward police.

The crowd at that point clearly believed Rittenhouse was an active shooter, according to the prosecutor.

Moments after shooting Rosenbaum, Rittenhouse shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin, who was seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. He wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a protester from West Allis, Wisconsin, who had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward Rittenhouse.

The defense also apparently pushed back against the notion that Rittenhouse was an outsider drawn to Kenosha by a call to arms on right-wing social media. Richards said Rittenhouse had strong ties to Kenosha — his father lived there and Rittenhouse worked in Kenosha County as a lifeguard — and had seen livestreams of what was happening.

As his attorney displayed photos and video clips from the night of the shootings, Rittenhouse, wearing a dark pinstriped suit and tie, leaned on his elbows to view the images on a desktop monitor. He sat ramrod straight as audio of gunfire was played, and occasionally turned toward jurors, seeming to scrutinize their reactions.

His mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, sat behind him.

The most serious count against Rittenhouse, first-degree intentional homicide, is Wisconsin’s top murder charge.

Rittenhouse has been painted by supporters on the right — including foes of the Black Lives Matter movement — as a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness by demonstrators and exercised his Second Amendment gun rights. Others see him as a vigilante and police wannabe.

He is white, as were those he shot, but many activists see an race as an underlying issue in the case, in part because the protesters were on the streets to decry police violence against Black people.

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