Father of man shot in Wisconsin says son no longer able to walk
● Anti-racism protests continue across US in wake of latest incident
The father of an AfricanAmerican man who was shot, apparently in the back, by police in the US state of Wisconsin, says his son was left paralysed from the waist down.
Jacob Blake’ s father says he was told his son was shot eight times during the Sunday evening confrontation with police, footage of which was captured on a mobile phone and led to two nights of unrest in the city between Milwaukee and Chicago.
The father, who is also named Jacob Blake and who was driving from Charlotte, Nor th Carolina, to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to be with his son, said he learned on Sunday night that officers had shot his son eight times and that he saw the video of it online a few minutes later.
He said his son now has “eight holes” in his body, and is paralysed from the waist down, though doctors don’t know if the paralysis will be permanent.
Anger over the shooting of a black man by police spilled into the streets of Kenosha for a second night on Monday, with police again firing tear gas at hundreds of protesters who defied a curfew, threw bottles and shot fireworks at law enforcement officers guarding the courthouse.
The south- east Wisconsin city became the nation’ s latest flash point in a summer of racial unrest after mobile phone footage of police shooting Blake – apparently in the back as he leaned into his SUV while his three children sat in the vehicle – circulated widely on social media. The 29-yearold was hospitalised in serious condition.
The shooting drew condemnation from Democratic Governor Tony Evers, who also called out 125 members of the National Guard on Monday after protesters set cars on fire, smashed windows and clashed with officers in
riot gear the previous night. Police first fired tear gas Monday about 30 minutes after the 8pm curfew took effect to disperse protesters who chanted, “No justice, no peace” as they confronted a line of officers who wore protective gear and stood shoulder-to-shoulder in front of the courthouse entrance. But hundreds of people stuck around, screaming at police and lighting fires, including to a refuse truck near the courthouse.
Tensions had flared anew earlier on Monday after a news
conference with Kenosha Mayor John Antarmian, originally to be held in a park, was moved inside the city’s public safety building. Hundreds of protesters rushed to the building and a door was snapped off its hinges before police in riot gear pepper-sprayed the crowd.
Police said they were responding to a call about a domestic dispute when they encountered Blake on Sunday. They did not say whether Blake was armed or why police opened fire, they released no details on the dispute, and they did not immediately disclose the race of the three officers at the scene.
The man who said he made the mobile phone footage, 22-year- old R aysean White, said he saw Blake scuffling with three officers and heard them yell ,“Drop the knife! Drop the knife !” before the gunfire erupted. He said he didn’ t see a knife in Blake’ s hands.
The governor said he has seen no information to suggest Blake had a knife or other weapon, but that the case is still being investigated by the state justice department.
Democratic pre sid ential nominee Joe Biden said the officers“must be held accountable”.
“This morning, the nation wakes up yet again with grief and outrage that yet another black American is a victim of excessive force,” he said, just over two months before election day in a country already roiled by the recent deaths of George Floyd in Minneapolis, R ayshard Brooks in Atlanta and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky.