"I want to put my hand on my son's cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I'll be OK. I'll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son." — Jacob Blake, Sr.
Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot multiple times by police in Wisconsin — apparently in the back as he tried to enter a vehicle — was left paralyzed from the waist down and has "eight holes" in his body, says the victim's father (whose name is also Jacob Blake).
From the Associated Press:
The shooting in broad daylight on Sunday by police in Kenosha, captured on cellphone video that quickly spread on social media, ignited new protests over racial injustice in several cities. It comes three months after the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police set off demonstrations around the United States and touched off a wider reckoning on race.
Blake's father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times in a story published Tuesday that he didn't know if his 29-year-old son's paralysis would be permanent. The older man was traveling from North Carolina to be with his son, who is being treated in a Milwaukee hospital.
"I want to put my hand on my son's cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I'll be OK," the father told the newspaper. "I'll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son."
Blake's father said that he learned Sunday night that officers had shot his son eight times and shortly thereafter he watched the video, which appears to show his son being shot in the back.
Read more at AP: Jacob Blake's dad says son left paralyzed by police shooting [By MIKE HOUSEHOLDER and SCOTT BAUER]
