Jacob Blake, the father-of-six who has been left paralyzed from the waist down after getting shot in the back by a police officer, has spoken out for the first time following the shooting and the man’s hospitalization.
As the 29-year-old said in a video statement distributed by his attorney, Ben Crump, he is in serious pain that doesn’t go away.
The father, who was shot in the back several times after walking away from officers who attempted to arrest him, also urged people to change their lives and “stick together.”
“I just want to say, man, a lot of young cats out there and even the older ones, older than me, it’s a lot more life to live out here man. Your life, and not only just your life, your legs, something you need to move around and forward in life, can be taken from you like this, man,” Blake expressed in his video.
“And I promise you the type of s*** you go through, staples, I got staples in my back, staples in my damn stomach, you do not want to deal with this s***, man. Twenty-four hours, every twenty-four hours it’s pain, nothing but pain.”
As the 29-year-old added, people should stick together and “make everything easier for our people out there.”
“It hurts to breathe, it hurts to sleep, it hurts to move from side-to-side, it hurts to eat. Please, I’m telling you, change your lives,” Blake urged the public.
“Stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out there, man, because there’s so much time that’s been wasted.”
The father’s statement came as he appeared in a virtual courtroom and pleaded not guilty to charges including disorderly conduct, sexual assault, and criminal trespass.
Replaced!