“I Didn't Want To Be The Next George Floyd”: Jacob Blake Opens Up About Kenosha Police Shooting

Blake sat down with “Good Morning America” and explained what unfolded on the day a Kenosha police officer shot him seven times, leaving him partially paralyzed.

Jacob Blake gave his first nationally televised interview with “Good Morning America.” | ABC/ “Good Morning America”
Jacob Blake gave his first nationally televised interview with “Good Morning America.” | ABC/ “Good Morning America”

Jacob Blake, the Wisconsin man who was shot by police and left partially paralyzed last summer, spoke out in his first major televised interview released Thursday. Blake told “Good Morning America” that he “didn’t want to be the next George Floyd. I didn't want to die.” 

In an interview with Michael Strahan on “GMA,” the 29-year-old Blake explained what transpired on August 23 when Kenosha Police Officer Rusten Sheskey shot him seven times as he stood outside of a car. Three of Blake's children were inside the car, his family attorney Ben Crump said.

The shooting, captured on widely shared video, fueled more anti-racism protests during a resurgence of Black Lives Matter activism over the summer. Kenosha County’s district attorney announced in early January that Sheskey would not face criminal charges. 

During the interview, Strahan asked Blake: “What’s going through your mind?” 

“My babies right here. My babies. So after he stopped shooting me, I said, ‘Daddy love you. No matter what,’” Blake said.  

Blake explained that he was trying to leave his son’s birthday party at Laquisha Booker’s house, the mother of three of his children, after Booker got into an altercation with a neighbor. He said he was trying to get his kids away from the party when Booker called the police on him. (Booker has denied that she called the police, though a county investigative report and dispatcher audio contradicts that claim.) 

“I just wanted to get them, I just wanted to leave,” Blake said. “I’m taking them to the store again, make them forget all of this.” 

Blake said he didn’t think police who arrived on the day of the shooting were there for him, and he continued to put his children in the car. Blake said the officers grabbed him and “slammed him” against the car without saying anything. Sheskey said in a statement that he told Blake, “Let’s talk about this” before adding that police had a warrant for his arrest, according to an investigative report. After a physical altercation, officers used a Taser on Blake, who eventually fell to the ground. 

Blake stood up after being tased and walked to the other side of the car, video showed. 

“We see you walk away from the officers after they try to grab you,” Strahan said, referring to a widely shared video. 

“I’m rattled. I realized I had dropped my knife. I had a little pocket knife. So I picked it up after I got off of him, because they tased me and I fell on top of him,” Blake said. “I shouldn’t have picked it up. Only considering what was going on. At that time, I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

Officer Sheskey grabbed Blake’s shirt as he was standing at the car’s open door and shot him seven times. In a report, police claimed Blake “twisted his body, moving his right hand with the knife towards Officer Sheskey” before Sheskey shot Blake.  

“I didn't want to be the next George Floyd," Blake said. “I didn't want to die.”

Strahan asked Crump, who has represented the families of Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery, to respond to critics who pointed out Blake’s past criminal history. Crump said: “If you’re a Black person in America, and you’re not perfect, then they say, ‘oh it was justified.’”

Watch the full interview:

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that two of Blake's children were inside of the car at the time when he was shot. Three of his children were inside of the car according to the family attorney. This article has been updated.