Kenosha cop says he shot Jacob Blake after hearing desperate mother plead 'he's got my kid, he's got my keys'
KENOSHA, WISCONSIN: Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha police officer captured in a viral video shooting 29-year-old Jacob Blake multiple times in the back, has told investigators that it wasn't just his life he was defending when he fired his weapon at Blake last month. Sheskey supposedly said that he used deadly force during the encounter because he was afraid Blake, while attempting to flee the scene, was trying to kidnap a child in the backseat of the vehicle.
According to attorney Brendan Matthews, who is representing the officer, Sheskey claimed that he heard a woman say, "He's got my kid. He's got my keys.” Matthews said that if Sheskey had allowed Blake to drive away and something were to happen to the child, “The question would have been 'why didn't you do something?'”.
On August 23, 2020, a video of Blake being shot seven times in the back by Sheskey went viral. In the video, Blake could be seen walking around a grey SUV. As he opened the driver’s side door of the vehicle and leaned in to get inside, an officer grabbed him by his T-shirt and shot him from behind. Several officers had their weapons drawn. An officer could be heard screaming, “Drop the knife,” but it wasn’t clear from the video if Blake was holding anything.
Law enforcement officials said in the aftermath of the shooting that the officers attempted the arrest after they “reported a domestic incident”. According to a dispatch log, a woman reported to police that Blake had taken her keys and would not give them back. Blake's family members, however, said he'd been attending a birthday party for one of his kids. After Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey unsuccessfully used a stun gun to try to stop Mr. Blake, a second officer, Vincent Arenas, used his stun gun as well on Blake. According to the department, Sheskey was the only officer who fired his service weapon.
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.
Matthews said in an interview with CNN that he typically did not talk about pending cases, but added that he felt compelled to provide some additional detail to counter what he described as an "incomplete, inaccurate" narrative that had emerged. At the time Sheskey opened fire, Matthews claimed, Blake held a knife in his hand and twisted his body toward the officer - an action that is not visible in the viral video.
Speaking to the media, Raysean White, who shot video of the encounter, said that he heard police tell Blake to "drop the knife" twice. While he said that he did not see a knife in Blake's hand, he acknowledged that it was possible some things occurred before he began witnessing the incident unfold. Matthews said that a second officer at the scene, whom he also represents, provided investigators with a similar account of Blake turning toward Sheskey with a knife in his hand immediately prior to the shooting. That officer, as per Matthews, said he too would have opened fire but did not have a clear angle.
Blake's lawyers have insisted time and again that he never posed a threat to the officers at any time during the encounter. Blake’s father too has denied his son was armed. "They shot my son seven times. Seven times. Like he didn't matter," Jacob Blake Sr. told the media. "But my son matters. He's a human being, and he matters."
Matthews, who represents the Kenosha Professional Police Association, said Blake was the aggressor in the encounter, based on the statements Sheskey and Arenas gave to state investigators earlier this month. He said that the officers were simply doing their jobs. Matthews furtner said that while seven shots may seem excessive, that number of shots is not out of line with other police shootings in Wisconsin and elsewhere that were later deemed justified. He said that Sheskey ceased firing when he determined Blake “no longer posed an imminent threat”.
Matthews further painted a sympathetic picture of Sheskey, stating that the fallout from the shooting had been devastating for him. He said that Sheskey had to move out of his house and get rid of his phone because he's been hounded by reporters. He also said that he was depicted as a racist and brutal cop on the internet. "He didn't go to work wanting to shoot anybody. He went to work trying to help people. That's what he does every day," Matthews said. "He absolutely did not want this to happen."