Records reveal details about Jacob Blake shooting
According to what he told state Department of Justice investigators, these were some of the thoughts going through Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey’s mind in the moments before he shot Jacob Blake seven times:
I don’t know what he’s going to do. Will we have to pursue the vehicle with a child inside of the car?
Is he going to hold the child hostage? Are his actions going to put others at risk?
Sheskey’s statements, made three days after the Aug. 23 shooting, are among nearly 900 pages of investigative files released this week. The documents also include Blake’s account of that day — which gives insight into his state of mind and is vastly different from Sheskey’s.
The records were made public after Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced his decision not to charge Sheskey or the
other officers involved in the struggle with Blake.
Under the law, jurors in police shooting cases must consider whether the officer reasonably feared for his or her own safety or someone else’s. To that end, Sheskey’s account of his interaction with Blake, who was left paralyzed, helps explain why Graveley chose not to prosecute him.
“If you do not have a case you can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Graveley said at a news conference about the matter, “then you’re ethically obligated not to charge such a case.”
“He has a knife! He has a knife!”
Blake, who was shot four times in the back and three times in the side, was left paralyzed. Cellphone video of the incident was widely shared on social media, sparking protests, vandalism and arson. Some of the people who posted videos were later subjected to threats, according to Justice Department records.
According to those records, here’s what Sheskey says happened:
He was riding with Officer Brittany Meronek, who had been hired less than a year earlier and was still in training. When they pulled up to Blake’s girlfriend’s house, they saw Blake carrying a preschool age child. The woman was running behind, yelling.
Sheskey heard Blake say: “I’m taking the kid, and I am taking the car.”
The officer recalls saying, “Let’s talk about this” as Blake placed the child in the car. The officers didn’t know there were already two other children in the vehicle or that Blake was their father.
Police did know there was a felony warrant out for his arrest in a past incident of domestic violence.
When Sheskey tried to handcuff him, Blake said, “Don’t do this,” and pulled away. Sheskey says Blake reached toward his waistband, and the officer believed he was reaching for a weapon.
Sheskey felt Blake was stronger than he was, so Sheskey stepped back and deployed his Taser twice. It had no effect. The two men had each other in headlocks. Blake had “a tight grip” around his neck, according to Sheskey.
“Sheskey stated that when Blake had him in a headlock he feared for his life because Blake had access to his weapon and he had the physical advantage,” the report says.
As Sheskey tried to take Blake to the ground, he heard Meronek yelling, “He has a knife! He has a knife!”
As thoughts of public safety and a possible high-speed chase swirled through his mind, Sheskey decided he could not let Blake drive away. He grabbed Blake by the shirt in an effort to prevent him from getting into the SUV.
“Blake for the first time showed intent to harm by driving the knife toward … Sheskey’s torso,” the report says. “Sheskey feared Blake was going to stab him but he knew that he could not retreat because the child was in the car and could be harmed.”
That’s when he fired, not stopping until the knife fell from Blake’s hand.
“I knew it was going to get ugly”
Department of Justice agents first spoke with Blake, who was in the hospital, the day after the shooting. They left because he couldn’t stay awake long enough for them to read him his rights.
The next day, they returned a few hours before Blake was scheduled for surgery, according to the documents and an audio recording. Blake at times muttered, spoke barely above a whisper, and at one point paused, saying, “I just feel a little sick.”
During those two meetings and a third a month later, he gave this account:
Blake had been staying at his girlfriend’s house for four days. They were celebrating their son’s birthday when his girlfriend became angry with him. Blake drove off to buy cigarettes.
When he returned, his girlfriend was arguing with a neighbor, so he started loading the kids into the car to get them out of there.
Police arrived, and after that, everything happened fast.
“Police showed up, he tried to grab me, and I basically grabbed on top of the car so I could hold myself up if he tried to take me down,” Blake said. “They Tased me right away.”
He added, “I knew it was going to get ugly.”
Blake told investigators he didn’t know there was a warrant out for his arrest. His girlfriend initially told him she’d reported him to police for the earlier incident, he said. Later, she said she actually hadn’t called the police on him and allowed him to move back in.
“They Tased me. I ripped it out. They said, ‘Don’t do that.’” Blake told the state investigators. “So then they hit me again. I’m like, I ripped that one out. They said, ‘What’d I just tell you?’ I’m like, “I ain’t did shit. Y’all Tase me, I ain’t did shit.”
That’s when Blake tried to walk away and police Tased him again. Again, it had no effect.
Blake had a folding knife, which he said he always carried because of possums and raccoons, but told investigators “it wasn’t even open.”
At one point he dropped the weapon, then picked it up to throw it into the car so he wouldn’t lose it. He told investigators he did not brandish, swing, or point the knife at anyone and had no intention of hurting anyone.
“I was just trying to leave,” Blake said. “He had the option to shoot my tires, even punch me. You know what I’m saying? He instantly grabbed my hand and was trying to put me in handcuffs.”
Not in front of my kids, Blake thought then. Not on my kid’s birthday.
All the while, he said, he struggled to understand why the officers had grabbed him, tackled him and put him in a headlock. He was the one in fear for his life, Blake said.
He recalled thinking to himself: Get in the truck or they are going to kill you.
Blake didn’t immediately lose consciousness after he was shot. He slumped over the steering wheel, thinking he was going to die in front of his kids.
“I love you,” he told them. “Never forget that.”
A threat of arson
State investigators questioned numerous people who witnessed the shooting and several who recorded or posted video of it. Some said they saw Blake struggle with officers, others said they didn’t. Some said they saw something in his hand, others said they didn’t.
The state Department of Justice also received a report from the Kenosha Police Department about threats against people who had posted the videos and against Blake’s girlfriend.
Kenosha police “had received anonymous info. that a Black militia group favoring Jacob Blake had threatened to come to Kenosha to hunt down and injure or kill the witness who filmed the Blake incident with Kenosha police and posted it on the internet,” one of the reports says.
It goes on to say: “The threats included burning down the building where Jacob Blake resided and the apartment building of the witness who recorded the incident from across the street.”
The call came in a week after Blake was shot. By then, unrest in Kenosha had led to numerous arsons and extensive vandalism at downtown businesses. White militia groups had made themselves known, with one issuing a call for men to come armed to a protest on Aug. 25.
That night, two men, Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, were fatally shot by a teenager armed with an AR-15style rifle. Kyle Rittenhouse, then 17, has pleaded not guilty to homicide and attempted homicide charges for killing them and for wounding Gaige Grosskreutz, 26, of West Allis.
Police considered the anonymous threats credible and notified the targets they were at risk.
By then, “all of the witnesses had moved out of the buildings or were in the process of moving out,” the report says.
Bill Glauber, Cary Spivak and Bruce Vielmetti of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.
Contact Gina Barton at (414) 2242125 or gbarton@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @writerbarton.