Jacob Blake Drops Lawsuit Against Police Officer Who Shot Him, Causing Paralysis
Jacob Blake, a Black man who in August 2020 was shot and left paralyzed during an arrest attempt by Kenosha police officer Rusten Sheskey and later filed suit against him will not move forward with his civil litigation.
According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Blake has not only dropped his civil rights lawsuit Sheskey, but also signed a one-page stipulation, along with lawyers on both sides, to dismiss the case with prejudice, which means he can not refile the claim.
A settlement was not mentioned in the order, which was granted by U.S. District Judge J.P. Stadtmueller.
On August 23, 2020, a viral video showed Blake walking towards his vehicle as officers had their guns drawn on him. As soon as he entered the car, one of the officers began shot him multiple times in front of his three sons.
He had reportedly been attempting to break up a fight between two women when officers were called to the scene. The gunshot wounds left him paralysed from the waist down. The shooting touched off days of protests in Kenosha and on Aug 25, resulted in two demonstrators being shot and killed and a third critically wounded. The shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse, was found not guilty of homicide and reckless endangerment charges.
Sheskey was placed on administrative leave after the shooting and returned to duty in April of 2021. In October, the Department of Justice announced he would not face civil right charges for shooting Blake.
