MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced Tuesday that he will not file criminal charges against a white police officer who shot a Black man in the back in Kenosha last summer, leaving him paralyzed and setting off sometimes violent protests in the city.
Officer Rusten Sheskey’s shooting of Jacob Blake on Aug. 23, captured on bystander video, turned the nation’s spotlight on Wisconsin during a summer marked by protests over police brutality & racism. More than 250 people were arrested in the days that followed, including 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, a self-styled medic with an assault rifle who is charged in the fatal shootings of two men & the wounding of a third.
The Blake shooting happened 3 months after George Floyd died while being restrained by cops in Minneapolis, a death that was captured on bystander video & sparked outrage & protests that spread across the United States and beyond. The galvanized Black Lives Matter movement put a spotlight on inequitable policing.
Sheskey was among officers responding to a woman who had reported her boyfriend was not supposed to be around. Cellphone video shows Blake walking to the driver-side door of an SUV as officers follow him with guns drawn, shouting. As Blake opens the door & leans into the SUV, Sheskey grabs his shirt from behind & opens fire.
The Kenosha police union said Blake was armed with a knife, & Sheskey ordered him several times to drop it but he would not. Sheskey’s attorney, Brendan Matthews, said Sheskey fired because Blake started turning toward the officer while holding a knife.
State investigators had said only that officers saw a knife on the floor of the SUV & hadn’t said whether Blake threatened anyone with it. The officers were not equipped with body cameras. #jacobblake #justiceforjacobblake #shotintheback #paralyzed #killercops #policethepolice #rustenshesky #cops #police #kylerittehouse #kenosha #wisconsin #protests #georgefloyd #breonnataylor #excessiveforce #attemptedmurder #jacobblakeshooting #jacobblakeshootingnocharges #rustensheskynotcharged #africanamerican #blackman #whitecop
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