A 17 year-old self-styled ‘vigilante’ has been charged with murder after three people were shot, two fatally, during the protests in Wisconsin.

Kyle Rittenhouse, obsessed with the police-supporting  Blue Lives Matter movement, was arrested in his hometown Antioch, Illinois.

He was taken to the Lake County Juvenile Detention Center and an extradition hearing has been scheduled for Friday.

Footage has emerged of the teen bragging about his role as a vigilante. He told reporters that he was patrolling the streets of Kenosha to provide medical assistance and protect local businesses from looters.

“People are getting injured. Our job is to protect this business and part of my job is to also help people,” Rittenhouse told a Daily Caller journalist of his militia moments before the shootings. 

He added: "If there's somebody hurt, I'm running into harm's way.

“That's why I have my rifle because I can protect myself, obviously. I also have my medkit.”

One of the victims has been identified as Anthony Hube, 26, from Silver Lake, and the second a 36-year-old Kenosha resident. A third man was shot in the arm but his wounds are not believed to life-threatening, chief of Kenosha police department Dan Miskinis announced.

Court records state that Rittenhouse ‘fled the state of Wisconsin with the intent to avoid prosecution for that offence’.

During his patrol of the streets he was called out by members of the crowd who accused him of threatening protesters at gunpoint.

Just moments after the shooting he appeared to be walking up to police with his hands in the air with his semi-automatic rifle across his body, despite members of the crowd yelling for him to be arrested, according to witness accounts and video footage.  

Miskinis said: "Peaceful protest is welcome. We cannot support violence. Not only is it bad for the community, it detracts from the message.

"Persons who were out after curfew got involved in a disturbance, and persons were shot.

"A 17-year-old individual from Antioch, Illinois, used firearms to resolve whatever dispute was in place. As a result, two people are dead. That was not a police incident.”

The protests come after 29 year-old black man Jacob Black was shot seven times in the back by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 23, and has been left paralysed.