Riots 'disgust' Blake's mom
Jacob Blake’s mom pleaded with rioters to stop turning Kenosha, Wis., into a war zone after her son was paralyzed by police — but that did little to quell violent unrest that decimated businesses overnight.
“My family and I are very hurt and, quite frankly, disgusted,” Julia Jackson told CNN late Tuesday. “And as his mother, please don’t burn up property and cause havoc and tear your own homes down in my son’s name.”
Jackson’s call for peace, her second plea that day, came after clashes between demonstrators, militiamen and police that have raged since a white cop shot Blake in the back seven times Sunday, leaving him at least partially paralyzed.
Still, protestors clashed with police and burned vehicles and buildings indiscriminantly throughout the city.
“It’s all gone,” business owner Linda Carpenter told the conservative Town Hall blog, sobbing as she hugged her son outside their burnedout furniture business on Tuesday.
“We didn’t do nothing to nobody. I don’t think it’s justifiable for anyone to destroy anybody else’s property.”
B&L Office Furniture had been in business for 40 years before it joined the list of torched buildings in the city of 100,000 people.
One man in his 70s, identified only as Robert, tried to hold back protesters from a mattress store where he worked on Monday, only to have his jaw broken in a disturbing caught-on-camera attack, Milwaukee’s Fox affiliate reported.
Meanwhile, authorities identified the cop who shot Blake as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the city’s police department. He and other officers involved have been put on administrative leave.
Officials also revealed Wednesday that Blake had a knife inside his vehicle when he was shot. The weapon was recovered by investigators.