Federal prosecutors have announced they will not file charges against the white Wisconsin police officer who shot and paralyzed Jacob Blake.
Officer Rusten Sheskey, who was responding to a domestic disturbance in Kenosha, shot Jacob seven times as he attempted to get into his vehicle and leave.
The shooting left Jacob Black paralyzed from the waist down and sparked several nights of protests.
State prosecutors declined to file charges against Sheskey earlier this year after a video showed Jacob, who was wanted on a felony warrant, was armed with a knife.
The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation days after the shooting.
On Friday, the agency announced a team of prosecutors from its Civil Rights Division and the U.S. attorney’s office in Milwaukee reviewed police reports, witness statements, dispatch logs and videos of the incident, and determined there wasn’t enough evidence to prove Sheskey used excessive force or violated Blake’s federal rights.
Seven shots into a man’s back isn’t excessive? Oh, okay.
Justin Blake, the uncle of Jacob Blake, called the decision “unconscionable” and added that it “definitely steps on every civil right we can imagine this country owes every African American descendant.”
“If we had a heart to be broken, it would be,” he said. “But because we’ve been through all we’ve been, we’re not.”
I’m disappointed, but not surprised.
Your thoughts?
Source: Associated Press
