Federal prosecutors announced on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021, that they won’t file charges against a White police officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back in Wisconsin last year. Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake, who is Black, during a domestic disturbance in Kenosha in August 2020 that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
The shooting ignited several nights of protests in the area, including one where 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse from neighboring Antioch, Illinois, shot and killed two protestors and wounded another during the demonstrations. State prosecutors previously decided not to file charges against Sheskey earlier this year after video showed that Blake had been armed with a knife and was wanted on a felony warrant.
The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation days after the shooting. The agency announced that 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.
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