The mother of the man who was shot by police over the weekend in a Wisconsin city forcefully denounced the rioting that’s taken place in the wake of the shooting.
“My family and I are very hurt and quite frankly disgusted,” Julia Jackson, the mother of Jacob Blake, said Tuesday. “And as his mother, please don’t burn up property and cause havoc and tear your own homes down in my son’s name. You shouldn’t do it.”
“People shouldn’t do it anyway, but to use my child or any other mother or father’s child, our tragedy, to react in that manner is just not acceptable. And it’s not helping Jacob. It’s not helping Jacob or any other of the men or women who has suffered in these areas,” she added.
Jackson was speaking during an appearance on “CNN Tonight.”
In a press briefing to give an update on Blake’s condition, Jackson said she saw the damage inflicted by rioters while riding through Kenosha.
“It doesn’t reflect my son or my family. If Jacob knew what was going on as far as that goes—the violence and the destruction—he would be very unpleased,” she said.
Jackson called for people to pray and everyone to examine their hearts. She said she has been praying for the healing of the country.
“We are the United States, have we been united? You understand what’s going to happen when we fall because a house that is against each other cannot stand,” she told reporters.
“To all of the police officers I’m praying for you and your families. To all of the citizens, my black and brown sisters and brothers, I’m praying for you. I believe that you are an intelligent being just like the rest of us, everybody. 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. America is great when we behave greatly.”
Blake was shot in Kenosha, a city some 40 miles south of Milwaukee.
A dispatcher alerted officers to an arrest warrant for sexual assault that had been issued for Blake in July.
Video footage from the scene showed Blake struggling with officers before escaping them and walking to a vehicle that had three children inside. When he went to the driver’s side door and began reaching inside, officers shot him.
Blake was rushed to the hospital. Family members said he is currently paralyzed from the waist down.
“It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr. to ever walk again,” attorney Benjamin Crump told reporters at the briefing.
Because of the gunshot wounds, Blake required the removal of nearly his entire colon and his small intestines. He suffered kidney and liver damage and has already undergone multiple surgeries.
Attorneys for the Blake family plan on bringing a civil lawsuit in the case.
The officers involved were placed on leave and the state Department of Justice is probing the matter.
