Update (August 28, 2020): WISN reports a lawyer for Jacob Blake said the handcuffs placed on the police brutality victim have been removed. A felony warrant issued for the father of three, who was shot seven times by police on Sunday night was also thrown out. 


Original story (August 28, 2020): Three days after Wisconsin police shot Jacob Blake multiple times in the back and paralyzed him, the father of the wounded 29-year-old said he visited his son at the hospital and found him handcuffed to the bed. 

“I hate it that he was laying in that bed with the handcuff onto the bed,” the heartbroken father, also named Jacob Blake, said on Thursday. “He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?”

According to The Chicago Sun Times, the father said he doesn't know what charges his son might be facing after the incident on Sunday, but he is handcuffed to the hospital because he is under arrest.

As Blavity previously reported, police said they were responding "to a reported domestic incident" in Kenosha, Wisconsin when the shooting happened. Witnesses said Blake was returning to his car after breaking up a fight. Video showed police shooting the father of three in the back as he was opening the door of his SUV, with his children in the car. 

During a Thursday press conference, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said he doesn't understand why Blake needs to be handcuffed. When asked if that was a point of worry for the governor, he responded with "Hell yes." 

“I would have no personal understanding why that would be necessary,” Gov. Evers said. “I can’t imagine why that’s happening and I would hope that we would be able to find a better way to have him get better and recover.”

The younger Blake thought he was hallucinating when he saw his father at the hospital.

“I told him, ‘You thought Daddy wasn’t going to see my son?’” his father said. “He grabbed my hand, held it real tight and started weeping, telling me how much he loved me.”

Blake said his son’s eyes were swollen, but he “looked and sounded like” his normal self and he’s alive. The father described the feeling of seeing his son like "walking across a desert to find someone waiting with a glass of water."

“It was way more than fulfilling,” the relieved parent said. “It was a feeling I can’t describe.”

As Blavity previously reported, the officer who shot Blake has been identified as Rusten Sheskey. According to the Department of Justice, none of the officers were wearing body cameras, CBS News reported. Raysean White, who recorded cellphone video of the shooting, said he saw three officers confronting Blake.

"One of them had him in a headlock and was punching him in his ribs, the other had him in a headlock on the other side of him and was pulling his arm," White told CNN. "After they punched him in his rib, the female officer Tased him and Jacob kind of leaned on the car and they proceeded to wrestle him toward the back of the car and he went to the other side of the car.”

Protests have been ongoing in Kenosha since the shooting of Blake. Dozens of fires were set and several businesses have been destroyed during the unrest, according to Kenosha Fire Chief Charles Leipzig. Evers deployed 250 troopers to Kenosha as part of the state of emergency on Tuesday. Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois was charged after allegedly shooting and killing two protesters, as Blavity previously reported. 

Gov.Tony-EversJacob BlakeKenosha-PoliceKenosha, Wis