Jacob Blake filed a federal excessive force lawsuit Thursday against Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha, Wis., police officer who shot him seven times in the back.
The lawsuit says Sheskey acted with “malice, willfulness, and reckless indifference” when shooting the 29-year-old Blake, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
Sheskey was not charged with a crime for the August 2020 shooting.
Blake’s lawsuit demands compensation for his injuries as well as punitive damages against Sheskey. The city of Kenosha, not Sheskey, would be responsible for paying any damages.
The 19-page suit also disputes some of the findings from Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley’s investigation, which cleared Sheskey.
Graveley said Blake was armed with a knife when Sheskey shot him, but Thursday’s lawsuit says Blake tossed the knife into his car before Sheskey opened fire. It also says Blake’s discarding of the knife was “fully visible” to the officer.
Blake’s legal team, which filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, includes high-profile civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who was also involved in the $27 million settlement paid to George Floyd’s family by the city of Minneapolis.
