When Jacob Blake’s father talked with his son Sunday morning, the younger Blake was gearing up for a day of celebrating his son’s eighth birthday.
That evening, the father got word that his son had been shot eight times by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Eighteen minutes later, he saw the now-viral video, he said.
“What justified all those shots?” his father said. “What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?”
Some witnesses say Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who attended middle and high school in Evanston, was simply trying to break up a fight Sunday evening. The cellphone video of the incident shows Blake walking around and opening up his car door before appearing to be shot in the back by police.
His father said there are now “eight holes” in his son’s body, and he’s paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors don’t yet know if the injury is permanent.
The elder Blake is now making the drive from Charlotte, North Carolina, to be with his son in the hospital Tuesday.
“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” his father said. “I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”
He’s been living in Kenosha for about three years, his father said, and is the father of six children between ages three and 13. Family is “definitely” important to the younger Blake, who has seven brothers and five sisters, according to his father.
“If you were in need of something and my son had it, he would not hesitate to give it to you,” his father said. “He’s a very giving individual.”
Source: Chicago Sun Times
Follow Me
}
Comments