Officer Rusten Sheskey will not face charges for shooting Jacob Blake

Officer Rusten Sheskey will not face any charges in the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin last year, federal prosecutors announced on Friday.

Sheskey shot Blake, who is Black, during a domestic disturbance in Kenosha in August 2020. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down and sparked several nights of protests. An Illinois man shot three people, killing two of them, during one of the demonstrations, the Associated Press reported.

State prosecutors said a video showed that Blake was armed with a knife so they decided not to file charges against him. Blake was wanted on a felony warrant.

The US Department of Justice also announced on Friday that a team of prosecutors from its Civil Rights Division and the US attorney’s office in Milwaukee determined that the proof against Sheskey was not enough to charge him for using excessive force or violating  Blake’s federal rights. The DOJ said it reached its decision after reviewing police reports, witness statements, dispatch logs, and videos of the incident.

“Accordingly, the review of this incident has been closed without a federal prosecution,” the Justice Department said, according to the Associated Press.

The Blake family’s attorney, Ben Crump, or his family is yet to comment on the matter.

The Justice Department’s findings mirror Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley’s determination in January that Sheskey could successfully argue that he fired in self-defense.

Investigators found that Blake had fought with three officers for several minutes before he was shot, at one point shrugging off a shock from a stun gun, and was trying to get into an SUV when Sheskey tried to stop him by pulling on his shirt. Graveley said the video shows Blake turning toward Sheskey with a knife and made a motion toward the officer with the knife.

(With inputs from the Associated Press)