August 23, 2020 | 11:36pm | Updated August 24, 2020 | 1:13am
A video posted online Sunday shows police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin shooting a black man as he gets into a car.
The footage circulating on social media shows two cops with weapons drawn trailing a man on Sunday afternoon as he walks to a gray van and opens the driver’s side door to get inside.
One of the officers then grabs him by the back of his tank top and appears to shoot him at close range. A fusillade can be heard, followed by a car horn, and bystanders screaming.
The Kenosha Police Department said in a statement that cops were responding to a domestic incident at around 5:10 p.m. when they were “involved in an officer-involved shooting.”
The gunshot victim — identified as 29-year-old Jacob Blake — was air-lifted to Froedtert Hospital and was listed in serious condition, cops said.
A family member told Milwaukee’s WTMJ-TV that Blake’s children were in the vehicle when cops shot their dad.
At least half a dozen witnesses told the Kenosha News that the man had been trying to break up a fight between two women. They said cops tasered him and that they heard seven gunshots ring out.
A large crowd gathered at the scene of the shooting later on Sunday, with some people climbing atop squad cars and breaking the windows, local reports said.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers issued a statement Sunday night in support of the victim.
“Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times, in broad daylight, in Kenosha, Wisconsin,” Evers tweeted. “Kathy and I join his family, friends, and neighbors in hoping earnestly that he will not succumb to his injuries.”
Evers also showed support for the Black Lives Matter movement and called for accountability as unrest began to rattle Kenosha.
“We stand with all those who have and continue to demand justice, equity, and accountability for Black lives in our country—lives like those of George Floyd, of Breonna Taylor, Tony Robinson, Dontre Hamilton, Ernest Lacy, and Sylville Smith,” he wrote.
“In the coming days, we will demand just that of elected officials in our state who have failed to recognize the racism in our state and our country for far too long.”
The Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation will launch a probe into the incident.
