(Reuters) – Kyle Rittenhouse, the U.S. teenager charged with fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during protests in Wisconsin last August, is set to make his first in-person court appearance on Friday.
The in-person hearing – made possible due to a relaxing of COVID-19 protocols – is expected to focus on scheduling and other routine matters prior to the start of his trial in November.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. CST (1530 GMT) with Judge Bruce Schroeder presiding, according to court records.
Rittenhouse, 18, has been charged in Kenosha County, Wisconsin with first-degree homicide and five other criminal counts related to the shootings, in which Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber were killed and Gaige Grosskreutz was wounded.
Rittenhouse had traveled on Aug. 25 from his home in nearby Antioch, Illinois, in a self-appointed role to protect businesses in Kenosha, where the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, had sparked large protests against police brutality and racism.
His lawyers have indicated they plan to argue their client acted in self-defense.
(reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
