Jacob Blake is no longer chained to his hospital bed, lawyer says

[Previous story, published at 3:21 p.m. ET]

“Why did they shoot me so many times?” asked Jacob Blake Sr.

“Honey, they weren’t supposed to shoot you at all,” the father replied, recalling the exchange during an interview with CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on “New Day.”

Jacob Blake, a black Wisconsin resident, was shot seven times in the back by a white police officer who tried to arrest him this week in Kenosha.

Blake’s children, ages 3 to 8, saw the shooting from inside a car that their father was entering when the officer opened fire. The older boy, who was supposed to celebrate a birthday the day his father was shot, also has questions.

“Dad, why was my dad shot in the back?” Jacob Blake Sr. recalled that the boy asked him. “Where is dad?”

Blake, 29, is hospitalized in Wauwatosa and family members said seeing him tied to the bed was heartbreaking. On Friday afternoon, an attorney for Blake, Patrick Cafferty, told CNN that he was no longer subject.

“Why do you have that cold steel on my son’s ankle?” Blake Sr. asked on Friday morning. “He can’t get up, couldn’t get up if he wanted to.”

Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. David Wright explained Friday why Blake was handcuffed to the bed.

“Jacob Blake has felony warrants for crimes he committed prior to the shooting incident. Anyone with this level of classification that we are guarding in the hospital would be treated this way.”

Calls to Blake’s attorneys on Friday were not immediately returned.

At the time of Sunday’s violent encounter with police, Blake had an arrest warrant in connection with a domestic abuse call earlier this year.

A dispatcher appeared to warn responding officers about Blake’s warrant, referring to “family problems” at the Kenosha residence and an “alert at this address for a ninety-nine.” Police code 10-99 may refer to a wanted suspect.

It is unclear if those officers knew why a warrant was pending against Blake when they arrived at the residence.

On May 3, Blake illegally entered the home and sexually assaulted a woman in her bedroom before leaving with her vehicle, according to the criminal complaint obtained by CNN.

That order has been overturned, Cafferty, Blake’s attorney, told CNN Friday afternoon. Cafferty also said that police are no longer protecting Blake.

Earlier Friday, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers said he “couldn’t imagine” why Blake was in handcuffs at the hospital.

“I would not personally understand why it would be necessary,” Evers told reporters. “I hope we can find a better way to help him … in his recovery. That seems counterintuitive. It seems to be bad medicine.”

Froedtert Hospital, where Blake is being treated, deferred CNN’s questions to the Wisconsin Department of Justice. Kenosha police and the district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“There is no explanation for that,” said Blake family attorney Benjamin Crump. “Follow the pattern of deliberate indifference and excessive force.”

“My son has not been given the rights of a human being,” said Jacob Blake Sr.

‘My son is fighting for his life’

Jacob Blake Sr. said his son has recounted what happened in pieces. Crump said Blake underwent multiple surgeries and suffered serious injuries, including damage to the intestines and internal organs, gunshot fragments to the spinal cord and a broken vertebra.

“My son is fighting for his life,” said the older Blake. “He’s holding on.”

Jacob Blake Sr. said that his son touches his arms and caresses his face and tells his father that he loves him. At one point, they talked about Blake’s paralysis and the young man said he wanted a dog.

“We’ll get you a dog, darling,” replied the father.

“They were so comforting that you almost forget how the situation was developing,” he said, referring to Biden and Harris and calling them president and vice president.

She added: “President Biden kept telling me about his own problems with his family. That he identifies with what I’m going through. I didn’t have to keep telling him. He knew. It felt like he knew. It felt like they knew what was going on. And they didn’t act like they were in a rush to go anywhere. They spent time with us. “

When asked if President Donald Trump has tried to communicate with his family, Jacob Blake Sr. said, “That is negative.”

Blake’s eldest, who recalled his father’s involvement in the civil rights movement, expressed gratitude for the wave of protests among American athletes this week, from the National Basketball Association to the National Football League and the Major League Baseball. Baseball Leagues.

But he voiced opposition to violence and looting in the wake of police brutality and racism.

“That is not going to make my son get out of that bed and walk,” he said. “Only God could get him out of bed.”

A jersey signed by members of the Milwaukee Bucks made your son smile this week. But Jacob Blake Jr. hasn’t spoken to his son about the riots and violence on the streets of Kenosha or anything that might delay his recovery.

“No problem, baby,” she told her son this week. “No hiccups.”

“I’ve got you dad,” Blake said.

Investigators issue their first version of events

Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake in the back Sunday as he tried to get into a vehicle with his three children watching from the back seat.

“In his mind, he just wanted to get his kids out of harm’s way, but before he could get them out of the car he said he was just counting shots,” Blake’s father said. “He said he was counting them. I guess he passed out around the number four or five.”

The incident began when a woman called police and said that “her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises,” the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation said.

In a police call, a dispatcher names Blake and says “he’s not supposed to be there” and that he took the whistleblower’s keys and refused to leave. The dispatcher later explains that he has no further details because the caller is “uncooperative.”

About five minutes after the initial report, a dispatcher received reports of gunfire, police said.

Officers attempted to arrest Blake and used a taser gun in an unsuccessful attempt to stop him, the DCI said. He walked around his vehicle, “opened the driver’s side door and leaned forward,” the agency said.

Sheskey has been with the department for seven years. No other officer fired his weapon.

Blake admitted that he had a knife in his possession, and law enforcement officials said they recovered a knife from the floor on the driver’s side of his vehicle, the agency said.

State investigators did not indicate why police moved to arrest Blake, whether he brandished or threatened to use the knife, or why Sheskey shot Blake in the back so many times. She does not mention her children in the vehicle or other family members who are a few meters away.

Sheskey and another officer were placed on administrative leave.

On Friday, the Wisconsin Department of Justice issued a statement identifying two additional officers involved in the incident as Kenosha Police Officers Vincent Arenas and Brittany Meronek.

Arenas, who also used his Taser in a failed attempt to apprehend Blake, the statement says, has been with the Kenosha Police Department since February 2019, having previously worked with the U.S. Capitol Police. Washington. Meronek joined the department in January, according to the statement.

CNN has reached out to the Kenosha Professional Police Association for comment.

His lawyers told CNN that Blake did not have a gun in the car.

“I can’t speak directly to what he had, but what I can say is that his three children were in the car,” Patrick Salvi Jr. told CNN. “That was at the forefront of his mind. That is the most important thing to him in his life: his family and his children.”