No charges filed against Kenosha officers in Jacob Blake shooting

The police officers involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake, which touched off days of civil unrest this past summer in Wisconsin, will not face any criminal charges, authorities said Tuesday.

Blake, who is Black, was struck by seven bullets at close range on Aug. 23 as he walked away from Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey, who had answered a domestic disturbance call.

Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley told reporters that Shesky and other officers would have had a strong case for self-defense.

"If you don’t believe you can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt, you have an ethical obligation not to issue charges," Graveley said at a Tuesday press conference.

Blake's family lawyer, Ben Crump, said Graveley wrongfully denied the community its chance to try the facts at trial.

“We are immensely disappointed in Kenosha District Attorney Michael Gravely’s [sic] decision not to charge the officers involved in this horrific shooting," Crump said in a statement.

"We feel this decision failed not only Jacob and his family, but the community that protested and demanded justice."

Graveley said he shared his findings with Blake before speaking to reporters late Tuesday afternoon.

Even before announcing his findings, Graveley pleaded for peace.

"Can moments of tragedy like this be an opportunity to build things?" he said.

The shooting left Blake paralyzed below the waist, according to his family.

Police responded to a call of a domestic incident near 2800 40th St. on that early Sunday evening in late August, officials said.

Kenosha police officers are not equipped with body cameras, but a bystander captured the confrontation that appeared to show Blake walking away and about to get into the driver's side of his SUV when Sheskey opened fire.

Sheskey and fellow officer Vincent Arenas both used tasers on Blake but couldn't stop him, authorities have said.

Blake was near a knife when he was shot, state prosecutors have said, and a blade was found in the footwell of the vehicle.

But Raysean White, the bystander who shot the video, said he heard police yelling, “Drop the knife!” but never saw Blake armed with any blade. The district attorney said that video did not capture multiple attempts to arrest Blake prior to the shooting.

"Multiple officers tried to grab his arms and try to secure him so he can be cuffed,” Graveley said. “He admits at one point, ‘Officers were trying to handcuff me but I was able to get up.’"

Graveley said officers had no choice but to arrest Blake and prevent him from leaving with a car or the children of Laquisha Booker, who has three kids with him. And once police officers learn there’s a warrant for Blake's arrest, his arrest became a paramount priority, the prosecutor said.

Graveley said multiple times Tuesday that it was “incontrovertible” that Blake had a knife in hand when the incident occurred and that Blake admitted to getting a knife. Sheskey told investigators that he was unsure whether Blake was going to kidnap or hurt the child in the car.

“Officer Sheskey knows that an armed man with a felony warrant, who just forcefully resisted arrest appears to be about to flee in a disputed vehicle, and there’s at least one child in the back,” Graveley said. “Those are all the facts that officer Sheskey has, in the context of a domestic abuse case at the point he has to decide what to do next.”

The district attorney cited an opinion from former Madison Police Chief Noble Wray, who was hired as an independent consultant for prosecutors, that said it was a reasonable decision to engage in force with Blake based on the information Sheskey had at the time.

Graveley also said the prosecution likely would have been hampered by the fact that the key witness would have been Blake, who admitted he was armed with a knife and admitted he did not comply with officers. Investigators were also unable to get a statement from Booker, whose testimony would have been crucial in any prosecution of Sheskey, Graveley said.

While it was previously believed that Blake was shot seven times in the back, further examination of Blake’s medical records found that he had three entrance wounds on his left side and four shots to his back, according to Graveley. The district attorney said that while it’s “absolutely appropriate” to ask whether seven shots is excessive, Sheskey said that he continued to fire until the “threat” stopped as part of his training.

A defense attorney would argue that Sheskey followed his training and that the shots to the back were because Blake turned away, Graveley said.

“Now, we have no way of determining which of those seven shots come when, so we don't know the order, right,” Graveley said. “I'm suggesting to you simply that there is a rational, logical scenario that anyone defending this case, along for these officers would be able to use this physical evidence I'm describing, to be able to persuasively tell a jury.”

Wray, a retired police officer who works on national police reform, said it was a difficult case but that his "ultimate obligation" was to the truth.

"It is hard, it is harsh. It is difficult. It has a history of racism," Wray said of the criminal justice system. "But we can not work through this by just trying to find a decision that is comfortable with people, we've got to find the right decision. It's got to be grounded in truth, it's got to be grounded in facts."

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in a statement that while the country has seen a movement to demand equality and justice over the past year, it is clear "we have failed to deliver on these promises, both as a state and as a country."

“Jacob Blake’s life has forever been changed and his kids witnessed violence no kid should ever see, experienced trauma no kid should ever endure, all while the world watched," Evers said. "And yet, when presented the opportunity to rise to this moment and this movement and take action to provide meaningful, commonsense reform to enhance accountability and promote transparency in policing in our state, elected officials took no action."

The NBA's Milwaukee Bucks, who play their home games about 40 miles north of Kenosha, led a brief boycott of multiple pro sports in the days after Blake was shot.

Ensuing protests in Kenosha also led to the to the slaying of two men.

Kyle Rittenhouse, a teenager from nearby Antioch, Illinois, gunned down Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, during protests on Aug. 25.

Rittenhouse has been charged with felony homicide among a host of other crimes.

The teenager has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Rittenhouse has insisted he acted in self-defense and that he was in Kenosha to protect local businesses from vandalism and to render medical assistance to injured protesters.

He's admitted to using a coronavirus stimulus check to purchase the semi-automatic rifle that authorities say he used to kill Rosenbaum and Huber.

Rittenhouse's case has become a cause célèbre in far right-wing circles. Former "NYPD Blue" actor Ricky Schroder and MyPillow Inc. CEO Mike Lindell raised money for Rittenhouse's bail, according to the young man's lawyer Lin Wood, who thanked the two noted conservative activists for "putting us over the top."

The shooting of Blake, along with the police slayings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, and initial decisions not to charge individuals involved in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery near Brunswick, Georgia, fueled a summer of international protests against systemic racism.