January 14th, 2021 8:30am
(WGTD)---For the first time since the August 2020 shooting, Jacob Blake is speaking out. In an interview with Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan, Blake says he did not resist arrest but resisted “getting beat on.” Blake says the police did not announce why they were there and that he was “shocked” when they grabbed him believing he hadn’t done anything wrong. Blake said he thought he was going to die. “I didn’t want to be the next George Floyd, I didn’t want to die,' he added. Blake says after he was shot he told his kids “daddy loves you;” saying he thought it would be the last time he spoke to them. Blake also denied reaching for a weapon, saying his pocket knife dropped out of his pocket. Blake says the reason he attempted to move away from officers was to put his knife in the car and that he was going to surrender afterwards. Blake had already been tased several times by that point and ripped out the taser prongs. Blake denies waving a knife at officers. Blake said if police killed him near the driver side door, “everyone would see it.” Blake says he shouldn’t have picked his knife back up after it fell and “wasn’t thinking clearly.”
Blake is on track for his 37th surgery, attends physical therapy four days days a week, and remains paralyzed. No criminal charges were filed against Officer Sheskey.
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