According to reports from his family, police shooting victim Jacob Blake was released from the hospital with little fanfare last week and transferred to a spinal rehab center in Illinois. His release was kept under wraps because Blake’s father has received death threats, which has the family concerned for Jacob’s safety as well.
Kenosha, Wisconsin Police shot the 29-year-old father seven times in the back in front of his children in August, which left him paralyzed from the waist down. Blake first spoke publicly last month, revealing how he was injured.
“I got staples in my back, staples in my damn stomach,” Jacob said. “It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side to side, it hurts to eat. There’s a lot more life to live. Your life and not only just your life, your legs – something that you need to move around and move forward in life – could be taken from you like this. Please, I’m telling you: Change y’all lives out there. We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out here, man. Because so much time has been wasted.”
The officers involved in the shooting were only placed on administrative leave, prompting a wave of protests in Kenosha that became contagious across the country.
