On August 23, 2020, Jacob S. Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot and seriously injured by police officer Rusten Sheskey in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Blake held a knife in his right hand and opened the driver's door of an SUV before turning towards Sheskey, who shot Blake in the back four times and the side three times. Sheskey said that he believed he was about to be stabbed. Earlier during the encounter, Blake had been tased by two officers, but the tasers failed to disable him and he continued toward the vehicle.
Blake had a warrant for his arrest from July, based on charges of third-degree felony sexual assault and trespassing and disorderly conduct for domestic abuse in May. Both Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis and the Kenosha Professional Police Association stated that the officers dispatched on August 23 were aware of the pending warrant for Blake before they arrived on scene; dispatch records confirm this.
The police shooting was followed by widespread unrest in Kenosha, which included rallies, marches, property damage, arson, and clashes with police. During the unrest, two men were fatally shot by an armed civilian, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse from Antioch, Illinois.
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