Who Is Jacob Blake? Father Of Kenosha, Wisconsin, Police Shooting Victim Says Son Paralyzed

Jacob Blake, the man shot eight times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday, is paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the incident, his father told the Chicago Sun-Times, and doctors say the damage might be permanent.

Blake’s story gained the national spotlight after a video of the shooting went viral. In it, police are seen shooting Blake eight times in front of three of his children, who were sitting in a nearby car. Witnesses said Blake attemped to break up a fight before police became involved.

“What justified all those shots?” Blake’s father asked. “What justified doing that in front of my grandsons? What are we doing?”

Police said the situation escalated when Blake took out a knife. One witness said they saw no knife, an assertion reiterated by Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers on Monday.

Blake, 29, was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and moved to Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago during middle school. He stayed in the Chicago area through moved to Kenosha, a just north of the Illinois-Wisconsin border, three years ago. Coming from a large family himself with seven brothers and five sisters, Blake is the father of six children, ages 3-13.

Blake’s family has a history of activism in the Evanston area going back many years. His grandfather, the Rev. Jacob Blake Sr., led the Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church and championed fair and affordable housing in Evanston. Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, the Reverend Blake organized a march for fair housing in the city, and four years later led the building of the Ebenezer Primm Towers senior living apartment complex.