The family of Jacob Blake, a Black man, shot seven times close range by a police officer as he was entering his vehicle — is reportedly paralyzed from the waist down following the attack.
His family says that it would take a “miracle” for him to walk again.
“The medical diagnosis right now is that he is paralyzed and because those bullets severed his spinal cord and shattered some of his vertebrae… it is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again,” family attorney Benjamin Crump said. “He is currently in surgery as we speak, still struggling to sustain his life and to hopefully become some resemblance of the man he once was.”
His father, Jacob Blake Sr., was unsure if the paralysis is permanent or whether his son would recover some future movement.
The shooting has sparked outrage throughout Wisconsin.
Governor Tony Evers declared a state of emergency in Wisconsin on Tuesday and authorized the presence of 250 members of the National Guard. The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department has also enforced an 8 p.m. curfew for the third night in a row.