Jacob Blake Is Handcuffed To His Hospital Bed While Recovering From Gunshots, Family Members Say

Jacob Blake is handcuffed to the hospital bed where he is recovering after being shot by police officers, family members said this week.

The police shooting of the 29-year-old man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has sparked nationwide protests and calls for the officers involved to be fired and face charges. On Thursday, the man’s father said that his son remains shackled to the hospital bed where he is starting what is expected to be a long recovery.

The father, who is also named Jacob, said that he does not believe this treatment of his son is warranted.

“I hate it that he was laying in that bed with the handcuff onto the bed,” he said on Thursday, one day after visiting his son, via the Chicago Sun-Times. “He can’t go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?”

The report from Blake’s father angered many supporters, including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who spoke out against it.

“How the f**k do you handcuff Jacob Blake that you paralyzed to a hospital bed after you shot him in the back seven times?” she tweeted. “I oppose a system where the perpetrators of attempted murder get to handcuff their victim. No system should have this much power. You can’t reform this.”

As The Hill noted, the Kenosha Police Department has not announced any charges against Blake. Video from the event showed the man identified as Blake walking away from officers who were trying to apprehend him. When Blake opened the front door of his car and began to lean inside, a series of gunshots were heard and he went motionless.

The report noted that officers were responding to a domestic dispute, and witnesses on the scene said that Blake was trying to break up a fight between two women when he was accosted by the law enforcement members on scene.

The video did not show the full events that led up to the incident, but officials said that a knife was recovered from inside his vehicle, CNN reported. They did not say whether he brandished or threatened to use the knife, or what led them to apprehend him in the first place, the report added.

The police department said that those involved in Blake’s shooting have been placed on administrative leave.

The shooting has sparked nationwide protests, including demonstrations in Kenosha that turned violent when police say a 17-year-old opened fire with a rifle he was carrying, leaving two dead and another injured in separate shootings.