Rusten Sheskey will not face charges in the shooting of Jacob Blake, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced Tuesday.
Sheskey, a White officer, shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, seven times in the back while responding to a domestic incident on August 23, 2020. Blake survived the shooting but was left paralyzed from the waist down.
"It is my decision now that no Kenosha law enforcement officer will be charged with any criminal offense based on the facts and laws," Graveley said Tuesday.
Tuesday's announcement comes as anger continues to mount across the country at the repeated deaths of Black people at the hands of police. The summer of 2020 saw protests -- some of which turned violent -- calling for police reform and an end to police brutality, sparked by the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others.
Graveley announced there will be no charges for the other two officers involved in the incident. They were identified by the Wisconsin Justice Department in September as Officers Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek.
Blake will also not face charges, Graveley said.
Sheskey told investigators that he used deadly force during the chaotic encounter because he was afraid Blake, while attempting to flee the scene, was trying to kidnap a child in the backseat of the vehicle.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice had said Blake had a knife in his possession and the weapon was found on the floorboard of his vehicle. Blake himself told authorities he possessed a knife, Graveley said.
"Jacob Blake, while actively resisting, arms himself with a knife," Graveley said, adding that he's heard supports of Blake say he was unarmed. "It's absolutely incontrovertible that Jacob Blake was armed with a knife during this encounter ... All the discussion that he's unarmed contradicts even what he himself has said multiple times."...
Tensions are set to rise the United States of America has another instance where an African-American Man was shot an unreasonable amount of times and the district attorney of said Cop's department announces that they will not face charges. Nationstates, whats your opinion on it? Was their excessive force? Is the District Attorney right to not charge him?
