Rittenhouse Rifle Buyer Detained in Illinois After High-Speed Escape
A 130 mph chase across state lines ended in the arrest of three Kenosha men accused of luring a Facebook Marketplace seller to a school parking lot for an armed robbery.
By Marco Whitaker ·
Three men drove at speeds exceeding 130 mph across Illinois and Wisconsin after allegedly robbing a jewelry seller at gunpoint, according to court documents. The group, which includes the friend who purchased the rifle used by Kyle Rittenhouse in 2020, fled Harvard Police and Walworth County deputies before being stopped in Racine County, Wisconsin, by spike strips deployed with the help of local authorities.
Harvard Police responded around 1:42 a.m. on December 11 to the intersection of Route 14 and North Garfield Street following a report of an armed robbery. The victims, a 32-year-old man and his 49-year-old mother from Janesville, Wisconsin, were selling items on Facebook Marketplace. Solomon A. Bankhead, 26, Dominick D. Black, 25, and Blair W. Stiles II, 20, all of Kenosha, arranged the meeting at the Harvard High School parking lot on the pretense of buying the goods.
Bankhead waited behind a dumpster and emerged as the victim arrived, pointing a Smith & Wesson M&P FPC 9mm carbine equipped with a red dot scope at the man. He demanded the victim empty his pockets while wearing dark clothing and a black mask. A second man stole the jewelry while Bankhead held the weapon, and the trio fled northbound into Wisconsin, with the rifle stored in the vehicle trunk.
The suspects changed the vehicle’s license plates during the pursuit. Walworth County deputies located the car, but the men evaded capture until Racine County officers deployed spike strips. All three were taken into custody without incident, and the rifle and stolen jewelry were recovered inside the car.
A McHenry County grand jury indicted the group in February. Stiles pleaded guilty to fleeing or eluding an officer and theft in April and is scheduled for sentencing on November 10. Bankhead pleaded guilty to two counts of felony bail jumping in Walworth County last Thursday and was sentenced to time served. He was extradited to Illinois and booked into the McHenry County Jail on Saturday.
McHenry County Judge Cynthia Lamb denied Bankhead pre-trial release on Tuesday. She cited his pretrial risk assessment score of 12, the highest possible level, and noted that electronic monitoring would not mitigate the risk he poses when outside his residence. Lamb barred Bankhead from contacting the victims during his custody. Bankhead, who has prior convictions for domestic abuse and criminal trespass, is scheduled to appear in court on December 4 to set a trial date.
Black, who bought the AR-15 rifle for Rittenhouse using the shooter's money, pleaded guilty to fleeing or eluding an officer in October. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and two years of extended supervision on each count, to be served concurrently with his Kenosha County sentence. Black is scheduled to be arraigned in McHenry County on November 20.
