JUDY WOODRUFF: Three days after police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot a black man, Jacob
Blake, in the back, the shockwaves are still reverberating through that city, through the
nation and, as John Yang reports, through the world of professional athletics.
PROTESTER: Black Lives Matter!
PROTESTERS: Black Lives Matter!
JOHN YANG: It was peaceful in Kenosha last night, as demonstrators demanded justice for
29-year-old Jacob Blake, who lies in a Milwaukee hospital, paralyzed from the waist down.
Bit by bit, details of his shooting by are emerging. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh
Kaul said police first unsuccessfully Tasered Blake.
JOSH KAUL (D), Wisconsin Attorney General: Mr. Blake walked around his vehicle, opened
the driver's side door and leaned forward. While holding onto Mr. Blake's shirt, Officer
Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon seven times.
Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr. Blake's back. No other officer fired their
weapon.
JOHN YANG: Kaul said that after Blake was shot, he told investigators he had a knife.
Officers found it on the floor of his car, though it's not clear whether they knew about
it before.
Using police dispatch tapes, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel determined that Blake was
shot less than three minutes after police arrived on the scene. The officer who shot
Blake is a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha police. He's on administrative leave and has
not been charged.
Information is also emerging about the killings of two Kenosha County men during protests
Tuesday night. Authorities have not named them, but friends and family say the dead
are 26-year-old Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum, 36.
On a now deactivated Facebook page that appears to belong to Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old
being held on a first-degree intentional homicide charge, a young man professed his support
for police, declaring, "We back the blue."
Blake's shooting has fueled protests around the country, from Oakland to Minneapolis,
where the Minnesota governor called out the National Guard to put down looting following
erroneous reports that police had shot a black man.
And the anger and frustration has spread to professional sports. Last night, nearly a
dozen, NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer games were called off
when athletes refused to play. Instead of taking the court for a playoff game, Milwaukee
Bucks players spoke by phone from their locker room with the Wisconsin lieutenant governor
and attorney general.
JOSH KAUL: I commend the Bucks and now all NBA teams that suspended their games today
for stepping up and participating in the dialogue about these issues and making their voices
known.
JOHN YANG: Later, Bucks' players spoke to reporters.
GEORGE HILL, Milwaukee Bucks: We are calling for justice for Jacob Blake and demand the
officers be held accountable. For this to occur, it is imperative for the Wisconsin
state legislature to reconvene, after months of inaction, and take up meaningful measures
to address issues of police accountability, brutality and criminal justice reform.
JOHN YANG: NBA and WNBA players and coaches have been at the forefront of protests over
systemic racism and police brutality.
Doc Rivers is head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers.
DOC RIVERS, L.A. Clippers Head Coach: We're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting
shot. We're the ones that were denied to live in certain communities. We have been hung,
we have been shot.
And all you do is keep hearing about fear. It's -- it's amazing to me why we keep loving
this country, and this country does not love us back.
And it's just -- it's really so sad.
JOHN YANG: As some NFL teams canceled practices today, NBA players agreed to resume the league's
championship playoffs, although tonight's three scheduled games have all been postponed.