Wisconsin officials have identified the officer who held Jacob Blake’s shirt and fired at him seven times, paralyzing him from the waist down, according to his family. Officer Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department, has been placed on administrative leave, but it’s still unclear if he will be charged for shooting Blake at point-blank range. The shooting happened Sunday in the 2800 block of 40th Street when officers were responding to a call from a woman who said her boyfriend was on the premises of her home illegally, Attorney General Josh Kaul tweeted in an investigation update Wednesday. Authorities didn’t say whether Blake is the man the woman called about, but they said when officers arrived on the scene they tried to arrest Blake and deployed a Taser that didn’t effectively stop him.
"Mr. Blake walked around his vehicle, opened the driver's side door and leaned forward," investigators said. "While holding onto Mr. Blake's shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon seven times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr. Blake's back."
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Investigators said Blake admitted he had a "knife in his possession," and Wisconsin justice department agents found the knife on the driver's side floorboard of Blake's car. "A search of the vehicle located no additional weapons," authorities said. It’s also unclear if Sheskey knew about the knife before he shot Blake.
The Division of Criminal Investigation, a facet of the Wisconsin Department of Justice, is still investigating the case. "When DCI is the lead investigating agency of a shooting involving a law enforcement officer, DCI aims to provide a report of the incident to the prosecutor within 30 days,” the agency said. “The prosecutor then reviews the report and makes a determination about what charges, if any, are appropriate. If the prosecutor determines there is no basis for prosecution of the law enforcement officer, DCI will thereafter make the report available to the public."
The shooting has triggered protests throughout Wisconsin, including one in which Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teen, is accused of using an assault-style rifle to shoot and kill two people. Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, tweeted Thursday about the incident: “Black man with no weapon walks away from Kenosha police and is shot 7 times in the back. White teen with assault rifle who just shot 3 people and KILLED 2, walks by Kenosha police with his gun & they offer him a water and he gets to go home. No greater summary of America exists.”
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