Authorities on Wednesday released some of the first details surrounding the police shooting of Jacob Blake, which has since sparked nationwide outrage and days of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The newly released information described the moments before Blake was shot seven times in the back and named the Kenosha police officer who shot him.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, police were called to the 2800 block of 40th Street Sunday after a woman said her boyfriend "was present and was not supposed to be on the premises."
Officers arrived at the scene and attempted to arrest 29-year-old Blake, at one point using a Taser in an attempt to stop him, but that attempt was unsuccessful, the DOJ said.
"Mr. Blake walked around his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and leaned forward," a press release from the department read. "While holding onto Mr. Blake’s shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon 7 times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr. Blake’s back. No other officer fired their weapon."
Authorities noted that the Kenosha Police Department does not have body cameras, "therefore the officers were not wearing body cameras."
According to the release, Blake admitted to investigators that he did have a knife at the time and a knife was recovered from the driver's side floorboard of his vehicle. No other weapons were found, the report said.
The officers "immediately provided medical aid," the DOJ said, and Blake was taken to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, where he remains.
Sheskey, who has been with the department for seven years, and all other officers involved in the shooting, have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation, officials said.
An investigation into the case remains ongoing from the Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, according to authorities. The department aims to provide a report within 30 days, it said.
NBC 5 has not independently verified the information being provided by investigators.
These details are some of the first to be released on the moments leading up to the shooting, which has become the center of demonstrations and sparked nationwide calls for justice. On Wednesday alone, several professional sports teams and athletes have refused to play in wake of the shooting.
Graphic video posted on social media appeared to show officers grab at Blake's shirt and shoot him in the back at least seven times as he leaned into a vehicle.
Blake's attorneys said during a news conference on Tuesday that the bullets struck Blake's spinal cord, resulting in the near-complete removal of his colon and small intestine, as well as damaging his kidney and liver.
Blake, according to family and attorneys, was paralyzed by the shooting but it remains unclear if that will be permanent.
"Because those bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered some of his vertebrae, it is going to take a miracle... for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again," Attorney Ben Crump said.
Blake's family and attorneys described him as a family man whose three sons were in the car at the time of the shooting, one of whom was celebrating a birthday.
"These little boys, these three little boys are going to have psychological problems for the rest of their lives," Crump said during a news conference alongside Blake's mother, father and three sisters.
Blake's father added that the children "are stuck right now."
"All my grandson asks is, 'Why did police shoot my daddy in the back?'" said Jacob Blake Sr. "How would you feel if your white son walked up to you and asked, 'Why did police shoot my daddy in the back?' You would have no clue."
The days of protests and unrest that followed Blake's saw clashes not only between police and demonstrators but also between armed groups on the streets in Kenosha.
Most recently, a night of unrest Tuesday ended with three people shot, two of them fatally. An Illinois teen has since been arrested and charged in connection with the shooting.
Police and protesters clashed several times Tuesday night, with officers dressed in tactical gear firing tear gas for the third night in a row at demonstrators who had previously thrown projectiles at law enforcement and attempted to breach newly erected barriers.
Authorities said firefighters responded to calls of nearly 40 different blazes set in the city on Monday night and into Tuesday morning.
In an effort to quell some of the unrest, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers declared a state of emergency on Tuesday, doubling the National Guard presence to 250 soldiers in the city. Additional police have also been called in from other departments in Wisconsin to help enforce the curfew.
Evers quickly condemned the police shooting on Sunday, noting Blake "is not the first Black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals in law enforcement in our state or our country," and on Tuesday called for a special session of the Wisconsin legislature to take up a package of police reforms as he issued a plea for demonstrations to remain calm.
