CHICAGO — The officer who shot Jacob Blake won’t face criminal charges for firing several bullets into the former Evanston man’s back, Kenosha County prosecutors announced Tuesday.
“No Kenosha law enforcement officer in this this case will be charged with any criminal offense,” said District Attorney Michael Graveley, who noted that a separate federal civil rights investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
The crux of Graveley’s argument was that his prosecutors would not be able to disprove a claim of self-defense from Officer Rusten Sheskey. As in other states, Wisconsin law holds that a person can shoot if he or she reasonably believes firing is necessary to avoid being killed or badly hurt.
Blake’s attorney, Benjamin Crump, released a statement blasting Graveley’s decision, saying it further erodes trust in the legal system and tells law-enforcement officials that they can continue to shoot Black men with impunity.
“This sends the wrong message to police officers throughout the country. It says it is OK for police to abuse their power and recklessly shoot their weapon, destroying the life of someone who was trying to protect his children,” Crump said.
Crump, a well-known civil rights attorney, also represents the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, both of whom were killed by white police officers. He said Blake will “push forward” with a civil rights lawsuit against the Kenosha Police Department.
The prosecutor’s decision comes nearly five months after video of the shooting sparked peaceful protests and violent demonstrations that ended with two people dead, Antioch teenager Kyle Rittenhouse facing a murder charge, and parts of the southeastern Wisconsin town in ruins.
The recording, viewed around the world as the U.S. was still reeling from the Minneapolis police killing of Floyd, shows Sheskey, who is white, shooting Blake, who is Black, in front of his children. Blake, then 29, was paralyzed from the waist down from his injuries.
During a lengthy news conference Tuesday, Graveley described the start of the Aug. 23 confrontation as a “domestic abuse scenario.” He played a recording of Blake’s girlfriend calling police to complain that he had the keys to a rental car and was worried he’d take it and crash it.
Sheskey arrived to see Blake putting a child in the vehicle. Sheskey told investigators that Blake said, “I’m taking the kid and I’m taking the car,” Graveley said.
The cops tried to take Blake to the ground and Sheskey and Blake wrestled, Graveley said. The officers tried to shock him with Tasers three times but it had no effect, the prosecutor said.
Questions have surrounded whether Blake had a knife, but Graveley said it was clear. Blake acknowledged to investigators that had a “razor blade-type knife” in his hand before he was shot, the prosecutor said.
“It is absolutely incontrovertible that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife during this encounter,” said Graveley, speaking at a banquet hall attached to Brat Stop, a Kenosha restaurant off Interstate 94 known for its bratwurst, cheese and local beer. “All the discussion that he was unarmed contradicts what (Blake) has said.”
The video shows Blake pulling away from Sheskey as the officer holds onto his shirt. Sheskey and Officer Vincent Arenas told investigators that Blake twisted his body toward Sheskey with the knife in his hand, Graveley said.
Much of the outrage has focused on Blake being shot in the back. Graveley noted that an expert found that four of the shots went into Blake’s back and three went into his side.
Sheskey told investigators he fired until Blake dropped the knife, the prosecutor said. Sheskey tried to give Blake medical aid, Graveley said.
Blake’s uncle, who had predicted Sheskey would not be charged, expressed his anger with prosecutors shortly before the announcement.
“Nobody at no time should be able to shoot an unarmed man seven times in the back,” Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake, told the Tribune. “There is no story that can protect you from ruthless violence and terrorism and modern-day lynching of a 29-year-old black man.”
Authorities in Kenosha are bracing for potential unrest. 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. 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 Floyd’s death 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.
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(Chicago Tribune’s Gregory Pratt contributed to this report.)
