Emergency declared after police shooting
KENOSHA, Wis. — Wisconsin’s governor declared a state of emergency Tuesday after some protesters vandalized businesses and set dozens of buildings on fire in a city where police shot a Black man multiple times, apparently in the back in view of his children.
The shooting of Jacob Blake on Sunday in Kenosha was captured on cell phone video and ignited new protests over racial injustice in several cities, just three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police touched off a wider reckoning on race.
The family attorney said Tuesday Blake is paralyzed and it would “take a miracle” for him to walk again. Attorney Ben Crump, speaking alongside family members, said the 29yearold was in surgery.
“They shot my son seven times, seven times, like he didn’t matter,” said Blake’s father, who is also named Jacob Blake. “But my son matters. He’s a human being and he matters.”
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers called for protesters to be peaceful, while also saying the National Guard presence would be doubled from 125 to 250 in Kenosha after crowds destroyed dozens of buildings and set more than 30 fires on Monday night.
“We cannot allow the cycle of systemic racism and injustice to continue,” said Evers, who is facing mounting pressure from Republicans over his handling of the unrest that has followed the shooting. “We also cannot continue going down this path of damage and destruction.”
Blake’s father said that he learned Sunday night that officers had shot his 29yearold son and shortly thereafter he watched the video, which appears to show his son being shot in the back.
“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” the father, who was traveling from North Carolina to Milwaukee, where his son is being treated, told the Chicago Tribune. “I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”
Three of the younger Blake’s sons — ages 3, 5 and 8 — were in the car at the time of the shooting, according to Crump, a civil rights attorney.
Police in Kenosha have released almost no information about the shooting, beyond saying the officers were responding to a domestic dispute when they encountered Blake. The Wisconsin Department of Justice is leading the investigation, which is expected to take several weeks. The officers were placed on administrative leave, which is standard practice in such cases.
Since the shooting, anger has spilled into the streets of Kenosha and other cities, including Los Angeles, Wisconsin’s capital of Madison and in Minneapolis, the epicenter of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer following Floyd’s death.