Jacob Blake's father says police who 'shot my son like a dog' are 'responsible' for protests that followed

(Image credit: KEREM YUCEL/AFP via Getty Images)

published 25 August 2020

Jacob Blake is paralyzed from the waist down after police officers shot him in the back eight times on Sunday night, his father tells the Chicago Sun-Times.

Police shot Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, on a street in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as he was getting into his SUV, where his children were sitting inside. Video of the shooting quickly started circulating, and turned Kenosha into the latest center of protests against police brutality and racism.

Blake's father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Sun-Times that when he talked to the younger Blake on Sunday morning, he was preparing to celebrate his son's eighth birthday. But now, there are "eight holes" in his Blake's body, and his lower body is paralyzed with no word on if his injury is permanent, the elder Blake said. Witnesses say Blake was trying to break up a verbal fight when two police officers arrived at the scene.

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Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.

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