Trump Barely Mentions Kenosha in Speech, and Only Refers to Violence

A 17-year-old, Kyle Rittenhouse, has been charged in the shootings, two of which were fatal.

In an interview on Tuesday night before the shootings, Mr. Rittenhouse told

a video editor at The Daily Caller, a conservative news and opinion site, that he and other armed people were present because protecting businesses was “our job.”

On the day of the shooting, the Atlantic Council researchers found, a Facebook page was created, calling for people to “gear up” and protect Kenosha. One person posted on the page, which has since been deleted, “shoot to kill.”

Another now-deleted Facebook page, claiming to represent a local militia group, asked people to “take up arms” and to defend Kenosha from “evil thugs” who were “planning on the next part of the City to burn.” The message was promoted by Infowars, and then repeated on hundreds of other Facebook pages.

One person who posted in a Reddit discussion thread wrote that 75 people were on their way to Kenosha from Green Bay, Wis., adding: “We have lots of guns. Lots of pipe bombs.” Another Reddit commenter demanded that “all nonwhites and degenerates leave Kenosha.”

Facebook has removed Mr. Rittenhouse’s accounts on that network and Instagram, removed praise for him on other accounts and blocked searches for his name, said Brian Fishman, the company’s director of Counterterrorism and Dangerous Organizations.

In a Twitter thread, Mr. Fishman said that Facebook had also removed the account of the militia group for violating the company’s rules, but that it had found no evidence Mr. Rittenhouse had seen the group’s posts.

Reporting was contributed by Alan Blinder, Michael Cooper, John Eligon, Jacey Fortin, Ruth Graham, Tyler Kepner, Sarah Mervosh, Richard Perez-Peña, Ed Shanahan, Marc Stein, Neil Vigdor and Alan Yuhas.