The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) identified Rusten Sheskey as the officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday.
The DCI, which provided its first update on the case late Wednesday, nearly 72 hours after the shooting, said it's continuing its investigation, but is not pressing charges as of now.
The shooting has prompted massive unrest in Kenosha since. The unrest culminated in a shooting incident that killed two people and injured one person on Tuesday amid the late-night demonstration. A 17-year-old was arrested in connection to Tuesday's shooting.
In response to Sunday’s shooting, professional athletes in multiple sports boycotted scheduled games. All three NBA Playoff games on Wednesday were postponed, and an MLB game between the Milwaukee Brewers and Cincinnati Reds was also postponed.
Investigators said that Sheskey, who was placed on administrative leave, has been with the police department for seven years.
The DCI gave the following description of Sunday’s incident:
“During the incident, officers attempted to arrest Jacob S. Blake, age 29. Law enforcement deployed a taser to attempt to stop Mr. Blake; however, the taser was not successful in stopping Mr. Blake. Mr. Blake walked around his vehicle, opened the driver’s side door, and leaned forward. While holding onto Mr. Blake’s shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon seven times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr. Blake’s back. No other officer fired their weapon. Kenosha Police Department does not have body cameras, therefore the officers were not wearing body cameras.”
Officials also said that Blake told officers he had a knife. The DCI said that officials later found a knife on the driver's side floor of the car.
The only videos of the incident were take bystanders that showed Blake opening his car door before he was shot at a close distance by Sheskey.
Blake’s family said on Tuesday that the 29-year-old is partially paralyzed, but was fortunate to survive his injuries.
