17-Year-Old Kyle Rittenhouse Arrested for Homicide as Unrest in Kenosha Continues

Jacob Blake, 29, was shot in the back seven times on Sunday as he leaned into his SUV, three of his children seated inside.

Kenosha police have said little about what happened other than that they were responding to a domestic dispute.

On Wednesday, three days after the shooting, state authorities identified the officer who shot Blake as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha Police Department.

Sheskey shot Blake while holding onto his shirt after officers first unsuccessfully used a Taser, the Wisconsin Justice Department said.

State agents later recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard of the vehicle, the department said.

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The man who said he made the widely circulated cellphone video of Blake’s shooting has said he heard officers yell, “Drop the knife! Drop the knife!” before the gunfire erupted.

He said he didn’t see a knife in Blake’s hands.

State authorities did not say Blake threatened anyone with the knife.

On Tuesday, Ben Crump, the lawyer for Jacob Blake’s family, said it would “take a miracle” for Blake to walk again.

He called for the officer who opened fire to be arrested and for the others involved to lose their jobs. State officials have announced no charges.

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking on the third night of the Republican convention, called for an end to violence in Kenosha and “law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color”.

But Pence made no direct mention of Blake or other Black Americans shot or killed by police this year.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden posted a video saying he had spoken with Blake's parents and other family members.

“What I saw on that video makes me sick,” Biden said. “Once again, a Black man, Jacob Blake, has been shot by the police in broad daylight, with the whole world watching.”

Elsewhere, the Minnesota governor activated the National Guard on Wednesday night to help quell unrest that broke out in downtown Minneapolis following what authorities said was misinformation about the suicide death of a Black homicide suspect.

The unrest comes three months after the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer touched off a nationwide reckoning over racial injustice.

(Writers: Stephen Groves, Scott Bauer) 

Source: https://apnews.com/97a0700564fb52d7f664d8de22066f88