Jacob Blake shooting
Kenosha County DA hires former Madison police chief to review case.
Attorney General Josh Kaul will hand the investigative file on the Jacob Blake shooting to former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray to review it as a use-offorce expert, Kaul announced Monday evening.
Kaul picked Wray to serve as a consultant on the case, but Wray has been hired by Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley. Wray will provide insight on the case before the file goes to Graveley, who will make a decision on whether to charge the officers involved in the shooting.
“I am confident that Chief Wray will provide a thoughtful and fair analysis of the facts of this case,” Kaul said Monday at a news conference.
The announcement came nearly a month after Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake in the back during an arrest, paralyzing him, on Aug. 23.
The shooting set off days of protests, looting and violence in Kenosha and became a focal point in the national debate over how police treat people of color. The widespread outcry, fueled by a viral cellphone video of the shooting, prompted both President Donald Trump and Democratic opponent Joe Biden to visit the city within days of each other.
Wray said he did not have a timeline for when his work would be finished but emphasized that it was important to be thorough. He said he has not “prejudged” the case and wants to see the available evidence.
“This is Wisconsin’s moment of truth,” Wray said. “And I want the best for this state and the people in this state.”
A Milwaukee native, Wray retired from the Madison Police Department in 2013 and served as a police reform specialist under the Obama administration’s Department of Justice. He was also the deputy monitor in the investigation into the Cleveland police officer that shot and killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice.
“He has analyzed cases involving use of force in cities around the country and he has reviewed use-of-force policies that agencies have around the country,” Kaul said.
Graveley asked not to be involved in the selection of the consultant. He said he wanted the public to know there was not a “preselected outcome” in the case.
“I wanted the maximum confidence for whatever decision results in this case,” he said.
Investigators at the state Department of Justice have not finished their investigation but are in the “final stages,” Kaul said Monday.
The DOJ generally aims to provide a report to local district attorneys within 30 days of a shooting by a law enforcement officer after reviewing evidence and conducting interviews.
Once the DOJ’s investigation is complete, Kaul will hand the file to Wray, who will review it in light of standard police procedures, Kaul said.
After Wray, Graveley will review it and will decide if the shooting was legally justified and whether to charge any of the officers involved. That process can take months.
If Graveley does not file charges, the state’s investigative report will become available to the public. If there are no charges, officers could still face discipline from the Kenosha department.
Sheskey has been on paid administrative leave along with Officers Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek, both present at the time of the shooting.
The DOJ’s update Monday was its first since Sept. 1, when it said it had conducted more than 80 interviews and worked for more than 600 hours on the investigation.
A police call goes awry
Sheskey, Arenas and Meronek were dispatched to 2805 40th St. for a report of “family trouble,” according to emergency radio traffic.
A dispatcher told officers that a woman called for police and said that “Jacob Blake isn’t supposed to be there and he took the complainant’s keys and is refusing to give them back.”
At the time, Blake had a warrant out for his arrest stemming from a May 2020 domestic incident, in which Blake was accused of sexually assaulting a woman and stealing her debit card and car keys.
A warrant was filed for Blake’s arrest on July 6, the day the assault charges were filed. The dispatcher told the officers about the warrant as they were responding to the call.
The officers tried to arrest Blake, and Sheskey and Arenas both used a Taser, according to the Justice Department, but were unsuccessful in stopping him as he tried to get into a small SUV with his three children in the backseat.
Blake walked around to the driver’s side of his vehicle, opened the door and “leaned forward,” according to the DOJ.
“While holding onto Mr. Blake’s shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon seven times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon towards Mr. Blake’s back,” the DOJ said in its last release. No other officers fired their guns. According to the DOJ, police found a knife on the floorboard of Blake’s vehicle, but it is not clear Blake held that knife during the confrontation with police, was reaching for it, dropped it in the car or was doing something else. Kaul and his spokeswoman have not elaborated on the statement.
The Kenosha Police Department does not have body cameras, but cellphone video captured by bystanders was shared widely on social media.
One of the videos shows Blake and two officers scuffling on the ground on the passenger side of a gray SUV, less than two minutes after the first officer responded to the scene.
A different video shows the scene from the driver’s side: Three officers, two male and one female, have their guns drawn and are behind Blake as he walks from the sidewalk around the front of the SUV.
The two male officers follow Blake closely, aiming their guns at Blake as he opens the SUV driver’s side door and begins to go inside.
As Blake tries to get in the SUV, one of the armed officers grabs his shirt, then shoots him in the back at close range. Seven gunshots can be heard, followed by the car’s horn as Blake slumps forward.
The cellphone video exploded across social media and ignited a firestorm of sometimes violent, destructive protests in Kenosha in the following days. Two days after the shooting, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Illinois used an assaultstyle rifle to shoot and kill two people.