The officers involved in the attempted arrest of 29-year-old father Jacob Blake, who was shot in the back by the police, have been identified.
On Friday, the Department of Justice revealed that the officers involved in the arrest of Blake include two rookie cops, Brittany Meronek and Vincent Arenas, and a 7-year Kenosha Police Department veteran Rusten Sheskey.
According to the statement, Sheskey shot Blake in the back seven times. The department has also confirmed that the other police officers didn’t fire their weapons at the time of the incident.
“After the initial attempt to arrest Mr.point 203 |
Blake, Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey deployed a taser to attempt to stop Mr.point 71 | Blake.point 77 | When that attempt failed, Kenosha Police Officer Vincent Arenas also deployed his taser, however that taser was also not successful in stopping Mr.point 202 |
Blake,” the release read.point 24 | 1
“Mr.point 197 | Blake walked around his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and leaned forward.point 270 |
While holding onto Mr.point 19 | Blake’s shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon 7 times.point 82 | Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr.point 117 | Blake’s back.point 131 | No other officer fired their weapon.point 162 | ”point 165 | 1
Following the shooting, Blake was rushed to the hospital where he now remains in a stable condition. As the family’s attorney claimed, however, the father has been left paralyzed from the waist down.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice has also confirmed that Blake “admitted that he had a knife in his possession,” whereas the item was recovered by the investigators from the floorboard located at the driver’s side.
According to the release, the authorities didn’t find any other weapons in Blake’s car. As of this writing, it is also not clear whether the 29-year-old was carrying a knife at the time of the attempted arrest or not.
While 22-year-old Raysean White, one of the witnesses who recorded the incident, claimed the police yelled at Blake to “drop the knife” while attempting to arrest him, Attorney General Josh Kaul didn’t say whether the father was actually carrying the knife or not.
Meanwhile, however, the Kenosha Professional Police Association insisted that the 29-year-old confronted the cops and put one of them in a headlock. They also claimed that Blake was carrying a weapon.
These allegations have neither been confirmed nor denied by the attorney general as of this writing.
Replaced!