The family of Jacob Blake held a press conference Tuesday (Aug. 25) in Kenosha, Wisconsin to address the recent shooting and provide an update on his condition.
Among the speakers at the conference was Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson. She asked for the people of Kenosha to stop the violence and “take a moment and examine your heart.”
“Citizens, police officers, firemen, clergy, politicians: do Jacob justice on this level and examine your hearts,” she said. “We need healing. As I pray for my son’s healing — physically, emotionally and spiritually — I also have been praying even before this for the healing of our country.”
She added, “Let’s use our hearts, our love and our intelligence to work together to show the rest of the world how humans are supposed to treat each other.”
Blake’s father also spoke at the press conference, breaking down in tears at one point of his speech. “They shot my son seven times, seven times, like he didn’t matter,” he said. “But my son matters, he’s a human being and he matters.”
Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump gave an update on Blake’s condition. The attorney shared that he was currently undergoing surgery and is “struggling to sustain his life.”
“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,” he 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.”
The family is also asking that the officer who shot Blake be arrested and charged. “We are demanding that the prosecutor arrest the officer who shot Jacob Blake, and we also are asking that these officers who violated the policies and their training be terminated immediately,” said Crump.
You can watch their speeches below.