The Justice Department has begun a civil rights investigation into the shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during an arrest.
Blake, 29, was shot seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer while officers were responding to a domestic incident on Aug. 23. A female caller had told the police that her boyfriend was present and wasn’t supposed to be on the premises.
Attempts to arrest Blake, who was the subject of an arrest warrant for sexual assault, using a Taser were unsuccessful. At one point, the 29-year-old walked around his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and leaned into his car. One of the officers shot Blake seven times in the back while holding onto his shirt. The officer has since been identified as Rusten Sheskey, who has been a Kenosha Police Department officer for seven years; he’s been placed on administrative leave.
He was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, where he remains. Family attorneys told the media on Aug. 25 that Blake had undergone multiple surgeries.
A criminal complaint obtained by The Epoch Times showed Blake was charged in July with trespassing, third-degree sexual assault, and disorderly conduct.
“And as his mother, please don’t burn up property and cause havoc and tear your own homes down in my son’s name. You shouldn’t do it,” Jackson said Aug. 25 during an appearance on “CNN Tonight.”
“People shouldn’t do it anyway, but to use my child or any other mother or father’s child, our tragedy, to react in that manner is just not acceptable. And it’s not helping Jacob. It’s not helping Jacob or any other of the men or women who have suffered in these areas,” she added.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice stated that all law enforcement officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative leave and are cooperating with the investigation.
