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Rusten Sheskey, a white officer, shot Blake, a 29-year-old black man seven times, while responding to a domestic incident on August 23, 2020. Blake survived the shooting but remained paralyzed from waist to toe .
The department said it made the decision because there is insufficient evidence to prove that Sheskey deliberately used excessive force. They informed the Blake family of the decision.
A year after the shooting, Blake told CNN he believes nothing has changed in terms of policing and the general division of the world, but he hopes to change that. “I really don’t feel like I survived because it might happen to me again. I didn’t survive until something changed,” said Blake.
The Justice Department said federal prosecutors in the Division of Civil Rights and the U.S. Attorney’s Office reviewed detailed evidence to determine whether the officer violated federal laws, focusing on a federal civil rights law and criminal law that prohibits certain types of official misconduct.
They came to the conclusion that there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Sheskey had acted with specific and specific intent to do something that the law prohibited. Accidents, mistakes, fear, negligence and poor judgment are not enough to establish a willful violation of federal criminal civil rights.
Sheskey had told investigators that he used deadly force during the chaotic encounter because he feared Blake, while attempting to flee the scene, would attempt to abduct a child from the back seat of the vehicle.
The Wisconsin Justice Department said Blake had a knife in his possession and the gun was found on the floor of his vehicle. Blake himself told authorities he owned a knife, authorities said. However, a lawyer for Blake’s family had taken issue with the idea that Blake posed a threat.
The current review of the incident has now been closed without federal prosecution.
CNN has reached out to Jacob Blake for comment on the matter.
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