World

No police officers charged in Jacob Blake shooting

January 6, 2021 10:55 am

Jacob Blake [Source: BBC]

No police officer will face charges over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin – an incident which sparked protests in the US.

Mr Blake was left paralysed from the waist down after being shot several times in the back as he got into a car where his three children were sitting.

The shooting of Mr Blake, a black man, by white policeman Rusten Sheskey on 23 August aggravated racial tensions.

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Two people died and one was injured in another shooting in Kenosha days later.

Kyle Rittenhouse, now 18, denied six charges including first-degree reckless homicide over those shootings when he appeared at a virtual arraignment with his lawyer, Mark Richards, on Tuesday.

He was among many armed civilians who descended on the city in answer to calls from right-wing militia after Jacob Blake was shot.