A Year After Jacob Blake's Shooting: How Wisconsin Remembers

KENOSHA, WI — Monday marks a full year since Rusten Sheskey, a Kenosha police officer, shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back.

Days of protests followed as Wisconsinites were already protesting George Floyd’s death in May 2020. The chain of events peaked when Kyle Rittenhouse, an armed Illinois teenager, was accused of shooting and killing two protesters and wounding a third.

Sheskey was cleared of wrongdoing and returned to duty in the Kenosha Police Department in April.

Blake survived the shooting but is paralyzed from the waist down. He filed a civil lawsuit against Sheskey in March.

See Also: Kenosha Hit By Damage After Jacob Blake Police Shooting: Photos

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Blake’s family and many Kenosha residents are still affected by last year’s events. Here’s how some have dealt with the fallout of the shooting.

Jacob Blake’s Uncle Speaks

Justin Blake, Jacob’s uncle, is thankful that his nephew is alive despite being in pain and undergoing intense physical therapy, Justin told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Kenosha law enforcement officers arrested Justin Blake at a sit-in protest in April where he called for Sheskey to be fired, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Justin said he still wants the officer fired and an investigation of the police department and the district attorney’s office.

“Folks are still hungry for justice because we haven’t gotten it yet,” Kyle Johnson, a Kenosha resident and organizer with Black Leaders Organizing Communities, told the Wisconsin Examiner.

“Rusten Sheskey is still on the force," Johnson said. "As a member of the community, a Black man that lives in Kenosha, I know I don’t feel safe with Rusten Sheskey still on the force.”

Changes In Kenosha Law Enforcement

Kenosha police Chief Eric Larsen, who was appointed in May, told Wisconsin Public Radio that he was still thinking about where Sheskey would work in the department. “Ultimately, the goal would be to put him on the road, but the future is not certain at this point, which makes it difficult for him,” Larsen said.

The police department has been holding listening sessions in the city’s disadvantaged communities and has started a violence interrupter program, Larsen told Wisconsin Public Radio.

On Aug. 16, the Kenosha Common Council voted unanimously to equip Kenosha police officers with body-worn cameras. Officers would be expected to patrol with body-worn and squad car cameras by late October, police said.

Rittenhouse Under Scrutiny Before Trial

State prosecutors filed a motion Friday to use video of Kyle Rittenhouse in a separate incident as evidence at his trial. In the video, Rittenhouse appeared to make threatening comments about people coming in and out of a CVS Pharmacy.

Rittenhouse, 18, was charged in the killing of Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum on Aug. 25, 2020. He will go on trial on Nov. 1.

The father of Anthony Huber, one of the men killed in a shooting at a protest in Kenosha last year, filed a civil lawsuit against Kenosha’s law enforcement leadership and the City of Kenosha.

See Also: Prosecutors Seek Video Of Separate Rittenhouse Incident: Report

Family Sues Kenosha Sheriff, Chief In Fatal Protest Shooting