Jacob Blake, the black Wisconsin father shot seven times by a white police officer, said he immediately thought of his children as the gunshots rang out, believing he was about to see them for the last time.
Blake — who was left partially paralyzed in the Aug. 23 shooting that prompted protests in Kenosha and other cities calling for police reform — said he “kinda went limp” when Officer Rusten Sheskey opened fire as he responded to a report of a domestic disturbance at the home of Blake’s alleged victim in a prior sexual assault.
“And all I remember at that point was kinda leanin’ back, lookin’ at my boys,” Blake told “Good Morning America” in an interview Thursday. “I said, ‘Daddy love you, no matter what. I thought it was going to be the last thing I say to them. Thank God it wasn’t.”
Blake said two of his children witnessed the shooting, which led to no officers being charged, prosecutors announced last week. Kenosha District Attorney Michael Graveley said Sheskey would not face criminal charges “based on the facts and the laws” following a review of more than 40 hours of video and 1,600 pages of documents.
Cops who responded to the domestic call were met by an agitated Blake, who was holding a knife at the time, Graveley said. The officer believed Blake was “going to stab him with the knife” as he tried to stop him from fleeing the scene, the prosecutor said.
“I do not believe the state … would be able to prove that the privilege of self-defense is not available,” Graveley said while announcing his Jan. 5 decision.
Officers who responded to the home where Blake was shot were trying to take him into custody for violating a restraining order in an alleged sexual assault, The Post has previously reported. He later pleaded not guilty to allegations that he broke into the home of his ex-girlfriend on May 3 and sexually assaulted her before stealing her truck.
The charges were later dropped as part of a plea deal with prosecutors and Blake was sentenced to two years of probation.
Sheskey and responding officers knew that Blake had an open warrant for felony sexual assault at the time, according to dispatch records and the Kenosha Professional Police Association.
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