UPDATED 8/28, 4:50 p.m. ET: Jacob Blake’s attorney Patrick Cafferty told CNN his client is no longer handcuffed to a hospital bed and his felony warrants are now vacated.
Sgt. David Wright, spokesman for Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, said Friday that the handcuffing was due to “felony warrants for [Blake’s] arrest from crimes he committed prior to the shooting incident."
See original story below.
Jacob Blake's father says his son is handcuffed to a hospital bed, as he recovers from a police shooting that reportedly left him paralyzed from the waist down.
"I hate it that he was laying in that bed with the handcuff onto the bed," Blake's dad—also named Jacob Blake—told the Chicago Sun-Times on Thursday. "He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?"
The father said he visited his son on Wednesday night, about three days after Kenosha officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake seven times in the back. Blake's dad said that as soon as he entered the hospital room, his son thought he was hallucinating.
"I told him, 'You thought Daddy wasn’t going to see my son?'" his dad said. "He grabbed my hand, held it real tight and started weeping, telling me how much he loved me ... It was a feeling I can't describe."
Blake, a 29-year-old Black man and father of three, was shot on Aug. 23 in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after police reportedly responded to a domestic incident at a residence. Benjamin Crump, an attorney hired by Blake's family, says the man was trying to break up a fight between two women when officers arrived at the scene.
A man named Raysean White reportedly began filming from across the street after he heard the women arguing; his video captured Blake walking to the driver's side of his vehicle and opening the door before the officer opened fire. Blake's three children were in the car at the time of the shooting.
"During the incident, officers attempted to arrest Jacob S. Blake, age 29. Law enforcement deployed a taser to attempt to stop Mr. Blake, however the taser was not successful in stopping Mr. Blake," Wisconsin State Attorney General Josh Kaul told reporters Wednesday. "Mr. Blake walked around his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and leaned forward. While holding onto Mr. Blake’s shirt, officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon seven times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr. Blake’s back."
Blake's father, like many others, has also questioned why his son was being arrested in the first place.
In the days since Blake's shooting, protestors across the country have called for the termination of all involved officers. Two protestors were fatally shot during the Tuesday night demonstration in Kenosha. The suspected gunman, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, has since been arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide.
Kaul announced Wednesday that Sheskey and all officers involved with Blake's shooting have been placed on administrative leave as authorities investigate the case.
