Jacob Blake released from hospital, enters rehab facility
Blake was shot seven times during an altercation with Kenosha, Wisconsin police back in August.
Jacob Blake has been released from a Milwaukee hospital, but he still has a long way to go in his path to recovery.
It’s been more than a month since Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot multiple times by a Kenosha police officer. His attorney Patrick Cafferty confirmed to CNN that his client was moved to “a spinal injury rehabilitation center in Chicago.” He declined to provide additional information about how long Blake is expected to be at the rehab facility. “I can’t provide more details,” he said.
On Aug. 23, Blake was shot multiple times as he attempted to enter a vehicle with his young children. The officers were initially called to the scene over a domestic incident. According to Attorney Benjamin Crump, Blake was trying to break up a physical dispute between two women.
Witnesses captured the encounter between Blake and the police on their cellphones. Video footage showed him struggling to get away from the officers before trying to get inside his car. Officer Rusten Sheskey grabbed Blake by the shirt and shot him at least seven times in the back.
The shooting left Blake paralyzed in the hospital from the waist down. Doctors were not sure if the injuries would prevent him from ever walking again. In August, he issued a message from his hospital bed. “Your life and not only just your life, your legs — something that you need to move around, to move forward in life — can be taken like this, man,” he said.
“It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move side to side. It hurts to eat,” Blake added. “You do not want to have to deal with this.”
The shooting sparked nationwide boycotts in sports leagues across the country. The NBA and WNBA boycotted their playoff games for Aug. 26. Other athletes and teams across multiple sports stood in solidarity with the movement and canceled or postponed their games as well.
The officers involved in the shooting have been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice.