The Kenosha police officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back has returned to active duty without being disciplined or charged
- Rusten Sheskey, the Wisconsin police officer who shot Jacob Blake, returned from administrative leave on March 31.
- "Officer Sheskey was not charged with any wrong doing," the Kenosha police department said in a statement.
- Blake was shot seven times in the back, and Blake's father said his son was paralyzed from the waist down after the incident.
Officer Rusten Sheskey, the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer who shot 29-year-old Jacob Blake in the back in August 2020 will not be charged or disciplined, the police department said on Tuesday.
The City of Kenosha Police Department said that Sheskey "was found to have been acting within policy," and that he returned to work from administrative leave on March 31, 2021.
"Officer Sheskey was not charged with any wrong doing," the department said in a statement. "He acted within the law and was consistent with training."
"Although this incident has been reviewed at multiple levels, I know that some will not be pleased with the outcome; however, given the facts, the only lawful and appropriate decision was made," the department continued in the statement.
Officers from the Kenosha Police Department responded to a "reported domestic incident" on August 23, 2020, as witnesses said that Blake was trying to break up a fight between two women. At one point, video footage of the incident showed Blake trying to get into a vehicle with three of his sons in the backseat before one of the officers pulled on Blake's shirt and shot him in the back.
Blake was shot seven times by Kenosha police last August, leaving him with serious injuries to his internal organs. His father told the Chicago Sun-Times that Blake was paralyzed from the waist down following the incident. Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley announced in January 2021 that "no Kenosha law enforcement officer, in this case, will be charged with any criminal offense."
The shooting of Blake sparked state and nationwide protests last summer.