The 29-year-old man shot by police officers in Wisconsin on Sunday is paralyzed from the waist down, his father said Tuesday.
Jacob Blake, who shares a name with his son, told the Chicago Sun-Times that his son was struck by eight bullets and is paralyzed from the waist down.
Doctors don’t know if the paralysis is permanent.
A spokesman for Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, where Blake is being treated, told The Epoch Times via email that the hospital has no update.
The elder Blake said in a Facebook video Monday that his son was in stable condition following surgery.
The younger Blake fought with police officers on the side of a residential street in Kenosha over the weekend before walking away from officers who had their guns drawn.
When he opened the driver’s side door of a van and reached inside, two officers fired multiple times.
Videos of the police shooting were captured by bystanders, who released them online.
Jacob Blake’s father said his son was not armed and blamed the rioting that exploded in the city following the shooting on the officers.
“Those police officers that shot my son like a dog in the street are responsible for everything that has happened in the city of Kenosha,” his father said. “My son is not responsible for it. My son didn’t have a weapon. He didn’t have a gun.”
A witness told the paper that officers and Blake wrestled on the pavement before he got up.
“They said he has a knife. All of the officers pull out their guns. … (One of the officers) tells him, ‘Get out of the car!’ and he starts shooting,” the witness said.
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul told reporters Monday that he couldn’t say whether Blake was armed. Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said at a separate briefing that there was no reason to believe Blake was armed.
Police officers, who responded to a domestic incident, were not wearing body cameras.
The officers involved were place on leave and the state Department of Justice is probing the shooting.
“We are going to vigorously investigate the facts of this case and in this case, as in any other case that we investigate, our pursuit of justice is going to be unwavering,” Kaul said.
A criminal complaint obtained by The Epoch Times showed Blake was charged last month for trespassing, third-degree sexual assault, and disorderly conduct.
Blake’s family hired Benjamin Crump, a civil rights attorney who is also representing the family of George Floyd.
Crump’s law firm said in a statement that Blake “was helping to deescalate a domestic incident when police drew their weapons and tasered him.”
Officers’ actions “nearly cost the life of a man who was simply trying to do the right thing by intervening in a domestic incident,” Crump added.
