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By Reuters 
9h ago
Kenosha, Wisconsin – The white police officer who shot Jacob Blake, paralyzing the black man and sparking civil unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has served in the city’s police force for seven years and once told a local newspaper that he had always wanted to be a cop.
Wisconsin officials have identified Rusten Sheskey, 31, of the Kenosha Police Department, as the man who shot Blake, 29, multiple times in the back Sunday when Blake opened the door of his car where they were sitting three of his children.
The officer’s records show he was suspended for one day in 2017 for a driving-related offense.
The shooting, captured on video by a bystander, sparked four nights of protests that sometimes erupted in arson and widespread vandalism.
On Tuesday night, a self-described 17-year-old white militia member shot three people and killed two, authorities said. The teenager, Kyle Rittenhouse, was arrested Wednesday and charged with murder.
The Blake shooting was the latest in a long series of often deadly incidents involving black men, women or children and police officers or self-described vigilantes. George Floyd’s May 25 murder, in which a Minneapolis police officer knelt on Floyd’s neck, sparked a summer of protests across the country.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice is investigating the Blake shooting with the help of the FBI and plans to provide a report on the incident within 30 days to a prosecutor, who will determine whether to criminally charge Sheskey. The US Department of Justice has also launched a civil rights investigation into the shooting.
Sheskey, who is now on administrative leave, a routine in police-involved shootings in Kenosha, did not respond to emails seeking comment. He joined the city police department in 2013 and has been part of a bike patrol unit.
Before that, he was a University of Wisconsin-Parkside Police Officer for approximately three years.
The Kenosha News, in a 2019 article, quoted Sheskey as saying that “for the most part” he had always wanted to be a police officer. Sheskey’s grandfather also worked for the Kenosha Police Department.
“What I like the most is that you are dealing with people maybe on the worst day of their lives and you can try to help them as much as you can and make that day a little better,” Sheskey told the newspaper series that highlights locals. . residents.
We may not be able to fix or improve a situation, but we may be able to make it a little easier for them to handle it during that time. “
Public records link Sheskey to a home in Kenosha, a city of about 100,000 people near Lake Michigan and about 35 miles south of Milwaukee.
In 2017, he was suspended for one day without pay for violating the department’s policies and procedures related to the department’s vehicles, according to a city registry. Details of the violation were not provided.
Sheskey grew up near Kenosha in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha. In 2010, he registered to vote as a Republican.
Last December, he and his now-ex-wife filed a joint petition for divorce, court records show.
Blake survived Sunday’s shooting despite injuries to his spine and multiple organs, and could be permanently paralyzed, lawyers representing his family said.
The Wisconsin Department of Justice said Wednesday that investigators found a knife on the floor of the driver’s side of Blake’s car.
Investigators also said police had shot Blake during an attempt to arrest him as part of a domestic dispute, and that Blake had admitted to them that he had a knife. They did not say that he had threatened anyone with that.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents the Blake family, disputed the report that he had a knife.
Reuters
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