Kenosha police officers involved in Jacob Blake shooting won't face charges

Michael Graveley.
(Image credit: KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

The police officers involved in the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last August that left Jacob Blake paralyzed will not face charges, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said Tuesday.

Blake, a Black man, was shot in the back by officer Rusten Sheskey, who is white. Sheskey was one of multiple officers who responded to a woman who reported her boyfriend was not supposed to be around. The officers got into a confrontation with Blake, and bystander footage, The Associated Press notes, "shows Blake walking to the driver-side door of an SUV as officers follow him with guns drawn, shouting." When Blake opened the door, Sheskey can be seen grabbing Blake's shirt from behind and firing.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.