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Jacob Blake left paralysed after being shot several times by police

The shooting of Jacob Blake sparked mass protests.

The shooting of Jacob Blake sparked mass protests. Photo: Getty

Jacob Blake, a US black man who was unarmed when a police officer shot him several times in front of his children, has been left paralysed.

The Wisconsin man was struck at least seven times in his back, leaving him paralysed from the waist down, his father, also named Jacob Blake, told the Chicago Sun-Times.

His shooting sparked outrage in the lakefront city of Kenosha where authorities are preparing for a third night of unrest. 

Jacob Blake’s father said doctors were uncertain whether his son’s paralysis was permanent.

“I want to put my hand on my son’s cheek and kiss him on his forehead, and then I’ll be OK,” he said.

“I’ll kiss him with my mask. The first thing I want to do is touch my son.”

Mr Blake was rushed to hospital in a serious condition after the shooting.

His father said he is out of surgery and in a stable condition in an intensive care unit.

A graphic video circulating on social media shows Mr Blake walking toward the driver’s side door of his silver SUV, away from two officers who were pointing guns to his back.

After he opens the door and enters his car, seven shots ring out with one of the officers tugging at his shirt.

In this 2019 selfie, Adria-Joi Watkins poses with second cousin Jacob Blake. Photo: AAP

Witnesses say Mr Blake had been attempting to break up a fight between two women when he walked away from police to check on his three sons – 3, 5 and 8 – who were in the car.

They watched their father being gunned down, civil rights lawyer Ben Crump said.

It remains unknown what the officers may have seen inside Mr Blake’s car.

The incident unleashed street protests in Kenosha, located north of Chicago and south of Milwaukee.

The shooting occurred three months after the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who was pinned to the street under the knee of a white police officer, sparking nationwide protests against police brutality and racism.

Unrest flared again elsewhere in the US with overnight clashes reported in Portland, Seattle and Minneapolis.

Portland, Oregon, has been the scene of weeks of protests following Floyd’s death that have sometimes turned violent. Police there once again declared a riot late on Monday and arrested demonstrators after fires were lit at the offices of a police union.

Seattle police said demonstrators set multiple buildings on fire, resulting in at least one arrest and one officer injured.

In Minneapolis, protesters including one man armed with a gun stopped an armoured police vehicle in the street until officers cleared the way with tear gas.

Black Lives Matter activists are demanding the immediate firing or arrest of the Kenosha officers, who have been placed on administrative leave.

Hours into the curfew, the mostly peaceful demonstration turned violent with some protesters setting off fireworks in front of police. Commercial and government buildings were set ablaze, along with vehicles in car dealership lots.

Local police who had support from National Guard troops fired tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd, which grew to several hundred, according to protester Porche Bennett, 31, of Kenosha.

Fires destroyed much of the black business district, Bennett said, adding that the instigators she saw were white.

“It’s people from out of town doing this. We’ve been shopping there since we were kids and they set it on fire,” Bennett said.

Demonstrators throw tear gas back at law enforcement on August 24. Photo: Getty

Social media images showed both white and black agitators. Black men swinging baseball bats broke traffic signals and street lamps. White and black men with bats bashed in the headlights and windshields of a row of cars.

One white man riding a skateboard doused a government truck with an accelerant and set it on fire. Heavily armed white civilians stood guard in front of one business to protect it from vandals.

At least one man was injured, shown on social media bleeding from the head as civilians administered aid.

-with AAP

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