Jacob Blake encouraged Black people to stick together in a video message filmed from his hospital bed.
In the message, the 29-year-old Wisconsin man urged other members of the Black community to get their priorities in order.
“I just want to say, man, to all the young cats out there, and even the older ones older than me, it’s a lot more life to live out here, man. Your life and not only just your life, your legs, something that you need to move around and move forward in life, can be taken from you like this, man,” Blake said, snapping his fingers.
Blake was severely wounded on Aug. 23 when Kenosha Police officer Rusten Sheskey shot him seven times in his back. Sheskey and his colleagues were there to respond to a call about a domestic dispute. Witnesses claimed Blake helped break up a fight before he was shot. A video taken by a witness shows Blake was walking away before Sheskey grabbed him by the shirt and fired several rounds into his back. He was left paralyzed from the waist down.
“I’ve got staples in my back, staples in my damn stomach. You do not want to have to deal with this s–t, man,” Blake said in the video. “Every 24 hours, it’s pain; it’s nothing but pain. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat.”
The father of six encouraged community members to change their lives for the better and unite.
“Please, I’m telling you, change y’all lives out there,” Blake pleaded. “We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out here, man, ’cause it’s so much time that has been wasted.”
Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Blake, posted the video on his Twitter page, where it racked up more than 1 million views. Sheskey and the other responding officers are on administrative leave while the incident is being investigated by the Wisconsin Department of Justice, according to USA Today. No charges have been filed against Sheskey.
