The police shooting of Jacob Blake, explained

Two people were fatally shot Tuesday, as the city of Kenosha experienced a third night of unrest.

Three people were shot, two of whom are dead, in the third day of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where demonstrators are demanding accountability in the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man who was killed by a white police officer.

After the city’s 8 pm curfew on Tuesday, police in riot gear met protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, dispersing many into the streets, according to the New York Times. Tensions rose at a nearby gas station throughout the night, where a group of men with guns who said they were protecting the property clashed with protesters. Just before midnight, shots rang out; two of three people were fatally hit, with other taken to the hospital with non-threatening injuries, according to the Kenosha Police Department.

Earlier in the evening, Blake’s mom, Julia Jackson, pleaded for politicians to “fix our country,” while condemning the destruction happening in Kenosha. “As his mother, please don’t burn up property and cause havoc and tear your own homes down in my son’s name,” she told CNN.

The unrest set off Sunday after a video circulated on social media captured Blake being shot at close range multiple times as he attempted to enter a vehicle.

On Monday, the Wisconsin Department of Justice released a statement saying the shooting occurred as Kenosha officers were responding to a reported domestic incident. It is unclear who was involved in the domestic dispute and how Blake is connected to it; available video offers little evidence about what took place in the minutes before the shooting. The names of the officers have also not been officially released.

Blake’s father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times Monday night that his son has eight holes in his body and is now paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors said it is unclear whether Blake, a father of six children, will be permanently paralyzed.

Meanwhile, the officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave. The state Justice Department, alongside Wisconsin State Patrol and the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office, is leading an investigation into the incident and says it will submit its findings to a prosecutor within 30 days, who will then determine whether to press any charges.

The shooting comes amid protests against police brutality that have been going on around the world since late May, advocating for Black Americans, like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, who have been killed at the hands of police officers. Blake’s shooting only sharpens the calls of protesters who say Americans must continue to take to the streets to fight the harmful cycle of police brutality and put pressure on lawmakers to defund the police.

However, in Wisconsin, where there have been several high-profile police shootings of Black men in recent years, lawmakers are already pushing back on a package of police reforms — and it remains to be seen if protests will quiet down until charges are brought or changes are made.

Police shot a Black man in broad daylight. He’s now fighting for his life at a hospital.

Police were called to the scene of a domestic incident at 5:11 pm on Sunday in the Wilson Heights neighborhood of Kenosha, according to a police report. It is unclear who called the police.

Before the shooting occurred, Blake was trying to break up a “verbal altercation” between two women just after 5 pm, several witnesses told Kenosha News. Witnesses also told the publication that Blake was unarmed. Officials have not yet confirmed these details.

In the video of the incident, Blake can be seen wearing a white tank top and black shorts. The video starts with Blake walking around the front of a gray van, coming from the passenger’s side and heading toward the driver’s side. Four officers are visible at the beginning of the video; two of them follow closely behind Blake.

The two officers have their firearms pointed at Blake’s back. Many people can be heard yelling. As Blake opens the driver-side door, one officer snatches the tail end of Blake’s tank top. It stretches out as Blake attempts to enter the vehicle; seven shots are fired at Blake’s back. It is unclear whether the second officer fired any shots. The van’s horn blares, the officer continues to hold on to Blake’s shirt, and a woman screams at the side of the vehicle where Blake was shot. One of the officers pushes the woman away, and the 19-second video comes to an end.

Police officers said in a statement that Blake received immediate aid and was airlifted to the hospital in Milwaukee.

On Monday, Jacob Blake’s family retained civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who also represents the family of George Floyd. According to a statement from Crump, Blake was shot by police in front of his three young sons, who were inside the vehicle.

“We all watched the horrific video of Jacob Blake being shot in the back several times by Kenosha police,” Crump said in the statement. “Even worse, his three sons witnessed their father collapse after being riddled with bullets. Their irresponsible, reckless, and inhumane actions nearly cost the life of a man who was simply trying to do the right thing by intervening in a domestic incident. It’s a miracle he’s still alive.”

According to Kenosha News, city officers and sheriff’s deputies do not wear body cameras. The police department has not responded to Vox’s request for comment on the incident.

A night of unrest in a region where police shootings aren’t uncommon

On Sunday evening, crowds of people arrived at the scene of the incident to protest Blake’s shooting. Videos on social media showed protests that included garbage trucks being set on fire, windows of buildings at and near the courthouse being smashed, and crowds clashing with police dressed in riot gear. Other accounts show that an entire car lot and building were burned down during the night. This activity prompted county officials to institute a curfew until 7 am Monday and the governor to deploy about 125 members of the Wisconsin National Guard to Kenosha.

On Monday evening, the scene grew more tense as organized marches outside the Kenosha County Courthouse gave way to rioting after the 8 pm curfew. Fires decimated much of Kenosha’s Black business district, according to Reuters, and protesters used bats to break traffic signals and signs. When the crowd of people reached 1,000 at a park near the courthouse, police shot small beanbags and used “ear deafening audio” to disperse the people who refused to move, according to the Washington Post. The unrest spread to other cities including Madison, Portland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, and Seattle.

On Tuesday evening, things intensified after curfew again, with protesters clashing with police officers outside of the courthouse, which has now been blocked off with a metal barricade. While the identities of the shooters and victims at the gas station shooting have not been identified, police are looking into videos of the incident that have been circulated on social media.

The protests continued those that began after Floyd’s death and underscored the fact that police shootings of unarmed Black civilians are not new occurrences in Wisconsin, a state in which Black people make up just 6.7 percent of the population. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Milwaukee region has been home to a number of high-profile police shootings — particularly of Black and Latinx men — in the past two decades in which officers were not charged. One of the victims, 22-year-old Adam Trammell, died in 2017 after officers from the West Milwaukee Police Department broke down the door of his apartment and repeatedly tased him as he showered.

The 2019 police shooting of Ty’Rese West in Racine County, just north of Kenosha County, also resulted in no charges against the police. A police sergeant stopped West one evening for not having the proper lights on his bicycle. A struggle ensued after the sergeant thought West had a gun. The incident ended when the sergeant fatally shot West. The death sparked protests across Racine County, and West’s family has not stopped issuing calls for justice.

Years of grassroots organizing after the police shooting of 21-year-old Kenosha County resident Michael Bell in 2004 led to the passing of a Milwaukee law in 2014 that prevents police officers from conducting their own investigations of officer-involved shootings. As in Blake’s case, an outside law enforcement body must step in to lead the investigation.

But in the wake of George Floyd’s death, criminal justice reform advocates have argued that law doesn’t go far enough, and protesters have demanded state legislators make changes to the criminal justice system. Some local officials across the state responded to these demands by terminating school district contracts with police officers. In June, Evers announced a legislative package that included banning chokeholds and no-knock warrants, adding the requirement that officers take deescalation training, and putting $1 million in grants toward community-based anti-violence programs, according to Wisconsin Public Radio.

However, lawmakers likely won’t take a vote on any of the proposals until next year. And the package of bills from the state’s Democratic governor has received little support from the Republican lawmakers who control the state’s legislature. On Monday, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos called the governor’s package “liberal policies that will only deepen the divisions in our state.”

Evers has used Blake’s shooting to call for a renewed focus on race and policing in his state, saying in a statement Sunday, “We stand against excessive use of force and immediate escalation when engaging with Black Wisconsinites. … In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognize the racism in our state and our country for far too long.”

But the governor’s statement — and currently proposed initiatives — have garnered pushback. Pete Deates, president of the union representing Kenosha police officers, denounced the governor’s statement, calling it “wholly irresponsible and not reflective of the hardworking members of the law enforcement community.” Deates asked that people “withhold judgment” about the shooting and let the investigation “play out fairly and impartially.”

Protesters in Kenosha and across the country are still demanding systemic change. Michael Bell Sr., the father of shooting victim Michael Bell, told the New York Times following the shooting of Blake, “The system is broken. The system here is broken.”

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