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Jacob Blake shooting: Lawyer says officer thought Blake was trying to kidnap child
Related: Lawyer says cop shot Jacob Blake after hearing a mother's desperate plea: 'He's got my kid. He's got my keys' (CNN)
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Source: Associated Press
Lawyer says officer thought Blake was trying to kidnap child
September 27, 2020
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times last month told investigators he thought Blake was trying to abduct one of his own children and that he opened fire because Blake started turning toward the officer while holding a knife, the officer’s lawyer contends.
Brendan Matthews, the attorney for Officer Rusten Sheskey and the Kenosha police union, told CNN that when Sheskey arrived at the scene on Aug. 23 in response to a call from a woman who said Blake was at her home and shouldn’t be there, he heard a woman say, “He’s got my kid. He’s got my keys.”
Sheskey saw Blake put a child in the SUV as he arrived, but he didn’t know that two other children were also in the back seat, Matthews said. He said Sheskey told investigators he opened fire because Blake “held a knife in his hand and twisted his body toward” the officer, and that he didn’t stop until he determined Blake “no longer posed an imminent threat.”
Matthews said if Sheskey had allowed Blake to leave and something happened to the child, “the question would have been ‘Why didn’t you do something?’”
Cellphone video captured by a bystander and posted online shows Sheskey and another officer follow Blake with their guns drawn as he walks around the front of the parked SUV, opens the driver’s side door and lean into the vehicle. Sheskey, who is white, then opened fire, hitting the Black man seven times and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, according to his family members and lawyer.
-snip-
September 27, 2020
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — The Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times last month told investigators he thought Blake was trying to abduct one of his own children and that he opened fire because Blake started turning toward the officer while holding a knife, the officer’s lawyer contends.
Brendan Matthews, the attorney for Officer Rusten Sheskey and the Kenosha police union, told CNN that when Sheskey arrived at the scene on Aug. 23 in response to a call from a woman who said Blake was at her home and shouldn’t be there, he heard a woman say, “He’s got my kid. He’s got my keys.”
Sheskey saw Blake put a child in the SUV as he arrived, but he didn’t know that two other children were also in the back seat, Matthews said. He said Sheskey told investigators he opened fire because Blake “held a knife in his hand and twisted his body toward” the officer, and that he didn’t stop until he determined Blake “no longer posed an imminent threat.”
Matthews said if Sheskey had allowed Blake to leave and something happened to the child, “the question would have been ‘Why didn’t you do something?’”
Cellphone video captured by a bystander and posted online shows Sheskey and another officer follow Blake with their guns drawn as he walks around the front of the parked SUV, opens the driver’s side door and lean into the vehicle. Sheskey, who is white, then opened fire, hitting the Black man seven times and leaving him paralyzed from the waist down, according to his family members and lawyer.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/shootings-police-jacob-blake-kenosha-rusten-sheskey-0324120f7524162d89424ac89e2aba00
______________________________________________________________________
Source: CNN
Lawyer says cop shot Jacob Blake after hearing a mother's desperate plea: 'He's got my kid. He's got my keys'
By Scott Glover
Updated 2030 GMT (0430 HKT) September 25, 2020
(CNN) — Police Officer Rusten Sheskey has told investigators that it wasn't just his life he was defending when he fired his weapon seven times at Jacob Blake last month in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He said he used deadly force during the chaotic encounter because he was afraid Blake, while attempting to flee the scene, was trying to kidnap a child in the backseat of the vehicle.
"He's got my kid. He's got my keys," Sheskey heard a woman say, according to attorney Brendan Matthews, who is representing the officer. If Sheskey had allowed Blake to drive away and something happened to the child "the question would have been 'why didn't you do something?'" Matthews said.
That explanation, provided in an exclusive interview with CNN, offers the most detailed rationale to date for Sheskey's highly scrutinized decision to shoot Blake, who is Black, as he leaned into an SUV with his children inside it on August 23. Cellphone video of the shooting went viral on the internet, sparking days of protests and rioting in the lakeside city of Kenosha. The shooting, which Blake's family has said resulted in paralysis from his waist down, was widely condemned as yet another unjustified shooting of a Black person by police.
The attorney's comments to CNN come as authorities in Wisconsin announced this week that the results of an investigation by the state Department of Justice would soon be turned over to a retired police chief serving as an independent consultant for his review. The consultant is in turn expected to forward the case to local prosecutors along with an analysis intended to help determine whether criminal charges against Sheskey are warranted. The officer remains on paid administrative leave.
-snip-
By Scott Glover
Updated 2030 GMT (0430 HKT) September 25, 2020
(CNN) — Police Officer Rusten Sheskey has told investigators that it wasn't just his life he was defending when he fired his weapon seven times at Jacob Blake last month in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He said he used deadly force during the chaotic encounter because he was afraid Blake, while attempting to flee the scene, was trying to kidnap a child in the backseat of the vehicle.
"He's got my kid. He's got my keys," Sheskey heard a woman say, according to attorney Brendan Matthews, who is representing the officer. If Sheskey had allowed Blake to drive away and something happened to the child "the question would have been 'why didn't you do something?'" Matthews said.
That explanation, provided in an exclusive interview with CNN, offers the most detailed rationale to date for Sheskey's highly scrutinized decision to shoot Blake, who is Black, as he leaned into an SUV with his children inside it on August 23. Cellphone video of the shooting went viral on the internet, sparking days of protests and rioting in the lakeside city of Kenosha. The shooting, which Blake's family has said resulted in paralysis from his waist down, was widely condemned as yet another unjustified shooting of a Black person by police.
The attorney's comments to CNN come as authorities in Wisconsin announced this week that the results of an investigation by the state Department of Justice would soon be turned over to a retired police chief serving as an independent consultant for his review. The consultant is in turn expected to forward the case to local prosecutors along with an analysis intended to help determine whether criminal charges against Sheskey are warranted. The officer remains on paid administrative leave.
-snip-
Read more: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/25/us/rusten-sheskey-account-jacob-blake-shooting-invs/index.html
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