CHICAGO — Authorities in Kenosha are bracing for potential unrest as they prepare for prosecutors to announce whether Officer Rusten Sheskey will face charges in the shooting of Jacob Blake in August.
On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said she’s following the situation in Kenosha “very, very closely.”
“It’s our expectation that sometime this afternoon we’re going to hear from the authorities up there about what charges, if any, are going to be brought against the officer who shot Mr. Blake,” Lightfoot said at an unrelated news conference. “So, our police department is clearly on alert. We’re in communications with our partners in the region and we are prepared for any eventuality. But we have no actual intelligence to suggest that there’s going to be an issue here in Chicago.”
Those comments came after Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday mobilized 500 National Guard members to help Kenosha officials. Workers installed temporary fencing around government buildings downtown in the city just over the Wisconsin border, according to local news outlets.
And the Kenosha City Council approved a resolution that will give the mayor emergency powers following the announcement, which prosecutors told city officials would come in the next two weeks.
Officials were preparing for further developments in the wake of late August protests and property destruction that broke out after the white Kenosha police officer shot Blake, who is Black, several times in the back at close range. The shooting, and widely seen video footage of it, sparked sustained protests, as well as fires, vandalism and looting that devastated parts of the city over three nights.
Numerous vigilantes armed with rifles inserted themselves into the scene, including Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, who shot three people, two of them fatally. Kenosha County prosecutors have charged Rittenhouse, who turned 18 on Sunday, with murder and a host of other counts, though his lawyers argue he fired in self-defense.
The Rittenhouse shootings have stirred strong public disagreement between those who condemn Rittenhouse and his supporters on the political right.
Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty at an online arraignment hearing Tuesday afternoon. The teen, wearing a light blue dress shirt and dark tie and face mask, said little as he sat beside his attorney, Mark Richards. His next hearing is scheduled for March 10.
Before Rittenhouse opened fire, nationwide attention focused on Blake’s shooting and the demonstrations that came at the end of a summer of protests around the country kicked off by the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Blake’s shooting prompted the Milwaukee Bucks to sit out a playoff game, giving way to the NBA canceling games for the day.
On Monday night, Blake’s father led a march around Kenosha and voiced concern that prosecutors would not charge Sheskey, as family members have called on them to do, the Associated Press reported.
“What is the National Guard for?” Jacob Blake Sr. said. “They going to deliver mail? Deliver ice cream? What do you think they’re here for?”
Blake’s shooting happened about 5 p.m. Aug. 23 after police received a call from a woman who reported that her boyfriend was present when he was not supposed to be, according to the Wisconsin Department of Justice. At the scene, Officers Sheskey and Vincent Arenas both unsuccessfully used Tasers, state authorities have said.
In footage shared online, Blake walks from the sidewalk around the front of an SUV to the driver-side door as officers follow him with their guns pointed. As Blake opens the door and leans into the SUV, Sheskey grabs his shirt from behind and opens fire while Blake has his back turned. Three of Blake’s children were in the vehicle.
The state Justice Department wrote that a knife was found on the driver-side floorboard of the vehicle. The department wrote in a statement that, “Mr. Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession.” It was not clear from the statement whether state authorities believed the knife posed any threat to officers or anyone else.
An attorney for Sheskey and the Kenosha police union said the officer believed Blake was trying to abduct one of the kids and he fired because Blake started turning toward him with the knife.
Shortly after the shooting, Blake’s family said he was paralyzed from the waist down. As of early October, he’d been discharged from a Wisconsin hospital and was being treated at an Illinois rehabilitation clinic.
