African-American Jacob Blake shot at by police paralyzed with shattered spine

WION Web Team

Wisconsin Updated: Aug 26, 2020, 06:00 AM IST

Demonstrators carry placards with slogans as they march in the road outside the US Embassy in London on May 31, 2020 to protest the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died after a police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes during an arrest in Minneapolis, USA. Photograph:(AFP)

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Demonstrations against police brutality erupted in Charlotte, North Carolina as police and protesters engaged in physical conflicts

African-American Jacob Blake, 29, who was shot at several times by Wisconsin police has shattered his spine and his stomach, colon, liver and an arm have been damaged, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

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"The medical diagnosis right now is that he is paralyzed," Blake's lawyer civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump said, adding,"It is going to take a miracle for Jacob Blake Jr to ever walk again."

"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," Crump added.

Blake's father accused the police of "senseless attempted murder" as his mother called for calm after two nights of violent protests.

"They shot my son seven times, like he didn't matter," Blake's father said, stating further,""But my son matters. He's a human being."

A video which surfaced later showed Blake shot at seven times by police. The incident comes as the "Black Lives Matter" movement has gathered momentum in the United States in the past few months after the killing of African-American George Floyd by a cop in Minneapolis who knelt on his neck leading to his death.

Meanwhile, demonstrations against police brutality erupted in Charlotte, North Carolina as police and protesters engaged in physical conflicts on Monday as reports claimed that some protesters received head injuries during the clash.