Benjamin Crump in an interview told reporters that “It’s going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again.” Two days after police shot him at point blank range, 29-year-old Blake was placed in the ICU and operated on for multiple bullet wounds on Tuesday afternoon. In the vehicle were his 3-, 5- and 8-year-old sons, Crump had said.
Blake’s father who appeared distraught described the shooting as a “senseless attempted murder.”
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“They shot my son seven times … seven times like he didn’t matter, but my son matters,” Jacob Blake Sr. said. “He’s a human being and he matters.”
According to another family attorney, Patrick Salvi Jr., Blake sustained multiple injuries including bullet wounds to one arm, damage to his kidney, liver and spinal cord.
“He had a bullet go through some or all of his spinal cord, at least one bullet. He has holes in his stomach. He had to have nearly his entire colon and small intestines removed,” Salvi added, saying the family will file a civil lawsuit against the police department over the shooting.
Protests have erupted in the US following the shooting, as well as civil unrest in the state. In order to restore peace, Gov. Tony Evers announced a state of emergency after urging demonstrators to remain calm.
Ahead of an expected new round of protests, Kenosha County declared another state of emergency curfew from 8 p.m. Tuesday, to 7 a.m. Wednesday. Sheriff David Beth asked “the public to stay off the streets for their safety.”
Demonstrators torched cars and set buildings ablaze on Monday night, disobeying a curfew.
Protesters were in a face off with police officers north of the Kenosha County Courthouse with some tossing water bottles and setting off fireworks. Two city trucks were among the vehicles burned.
Two Kenosha officers have been placed on administrative leave. The local police union has urged the public to withhold judgment until a state investigation is complete.
The shooting came as demonstrators continue to decry police violence in American cities, including the encounters that killed George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The night before Blake’s shooting, protests erupted in Lafayette, Louisiana, after police killed a Black man — Trayford Pellerin, 31 — outside a convenience store.
“If we don’t have the systematic reform that this moment in America is crying out for, then we are going to continue to see hashtag after hashtag, protest after protest, and cities burning all across America,” Crump said.
Several businesses were set on fire in Kenosha on Monday, and Gov. Tony Evers called upon the National Guard to help “protect critical infrastructure, such as utilities and fire stations and to ensure Kenoshians are able to assemble safely,” he said.
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