There was a weapon in his hands as he walked around to his car.
Here is the second video that came out showing him fighting with cops and getting tased twice
Here is the report
But it’s rather long so here’s a condensed breakdown.
First, a note on the investigation. The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) investigated this, not the Kenosha PD. Over 30 DCI agents spent over 1,000 hours in investigation. All evidence gathered will be made available to the public with limited redaction.
On the afternoon of Aug 23, Blake was at the residence of Laquisha Booker, the woman who called the police and who had 3 kids with Blake. It was one of their son’s birthdays, which was why Blake was there. Given the dysfunctional nature of their relationship and the limited/contradictory evidence, the exact reason for the disagreement is unknown, but something happened which sparked an argument.
At 4-4:30 pm, a neighbor saw two women (one presumably Booker) yelling and arguing for about 45 minutes. Then, Blake pulled up in a gray SUV and told his son to get in the car. This is probably where the erroneous narrative of him breaking up a fight between two women came from.
The neighbor saw Blake walk past the women without saying anything and enter the house. He was there for about 2 minutes.
At ~5:10 pm, Booker called police with direct and lively accusations. Here’s part of the 911 call:
“Jacob Blake is here and he has the keys to a rental that I purchased that I need to take back and he’s not trying to release it and on top of that, he’s not supposed to be here. Today is his son's birthday, so I allowed him to spend a couple hours with him, but he’s not giving me the keys to this rental. And that's all I'm asking for….He’s crashed numerous of my vehicles in the past and I literally just bought one like yesterday. And so, just because he heard some false information, he’s not willing to give me the keys to this car that doesn't even belong to me. Me and my sisters just saw him skirt off in it and turn around and come back, so I need you guys to come…and I need these keys.”
3 officers responded this call. The responding officers knew that Blake was the subject of the call, and that he had a felony warrant from a prior incident where he was charged with sexual assault (on Booker). Officer Sheskey obtained a description of Blake en route, and procedure required he must arrest him if encountered.
When officers arrived, Booker flagged them down, identified Blake and shouted some version of "It's him! It's him! He has my keys! It's my car! It's registered to me!" Officer Sheskey heard the male say, "I'm taking the kid and I am taking the car." Sheskey saw Blake putting a child in the back of the vehicle and immediately attempted to arrest him, assisted by Officer Arenas and Meronek.
Blake did not comply and physically resisted arrest. Officers brought Blake to the ground, but he got away. Two officers deployed their tasers, but Blake ripped them out, making them ineffective.
Officer Meronek then saw Blake had a knife and yelled, “Knife! Knife! He has a knife!” The officers then backed off with guns drawn, commanding Blake repeatedly to drop the knife. Blake ignored these commands and began walking around the SUV to the passenger side. This is where the video we all saw picks up.
From the viral video it was too blurry to tell if Blake had a knife, but DCI specialists enhanced the video to show it was in his left hand as he walked around the car. Additionally, Blake admitted he had a knife. By the time he was walking in front of the SUV, the knife was opened and blade was exposed.
As Blake tried to enter the driver’s side (with the kids in the car) Sheskey lunged toward him, grabbing his his tank top. The next part is obscured in the video, but both officers stated that the moment before Sheskey opened fire, Blake twisted his body, moving his right hand (which now had the knife) towards Sheskey. This was confirmed by two citizen witnesses. Sheskey and Arenas claim that he was beginning to lunge with the knife.
Sheskey shot Blake 7 times, 4 wounds to the back and 3 wounds to his left side. He wasn’t shot in the back 7 times. It’s unknown which shots came first, but the shots to the side suggest he had twisted and lunged at Sheskey, and those happened first.
Sheskey stated he fired shots until Blake dropped the knife, consistent with law enforcement training. There were 10 bullets left in his gun. Officer Arenas was on the other side of the driver’s door and said he would have also fired but didn’t have a clear shot.
Some other noteworthy things to add:
There was no body cam footage, which makes certain things unclear, particularly the initial struggle and right before the shooting. However, given all the evidence, this footage would likely bolster the officers’ claims and could have stopped much of the early speculation in its tracks. The DA was highly critical of Kenosha Police not having these cams.
There’s almost no testimony from Booker, who is a significant witness. Besides a brief and unproductive questioning in the hours after the shooting, investigators have not been able to reach or locate her. This absence is notable and concerning, but could potentially be a result of the domestic abuse. Over the past 8 years, Booker has repeatedly alleged Blake hit, choked and sexually assaulted her. Many of these incidents involved Blake taking her car keys.
Blake’s story has many holes and outright falsehoods. He claimed he didn’t know he had a warrant, and didn’t know why police were trying to apprehend him. But investigators found text messages and internet searches on his phone which showed he looked up his own pending warrant case.
Blake admitted to having a knife, but claimed he dropped it at the beginning of the exchange, then decided to pick it up and return to his car (in the midst of the struggle!) but he was never planning on using it. Yet, in 2010 he was alleged to have attacked a police officer with a knife while resisting police. Police reports say he waved the knife in a slashing motion and ignored commands to drop it. He had to be repeatedly tased to be brought into custody.
Given this context, there’s simply no way the DA could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that officer Sheskey acted unlawfully, the case would get obliterated by a competent defense attorney. While the incident was a tragedy, the early hype and jumping to conclusions caused massive damage, including the destruction of Kenosha and the deaths
It really sucks how abusive men are never really accountable.
