Jacob Blake, the black man whose shooting by Kenosha police last year set off the riots during which Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third, is rehabilitating his injuries in Chicago.
Blake, 30, is learning to walk again, according to his uncle, Justin Blake, who has been a vocal protester outside the courthouse in Kenosha where Rittenhouse is due to learn his fate.
‘He has bad days, there’s no doubt, but he’s so grateful to be alive,’ Justin Blake, a 52-year-old Chicago resident, told The New York Times.
Justin Blake said that his nephew has not been following the Rittenhouse trial. Instead, he has focused on his new t-shirt printing business.
‘He needs to be focusing on himself, focusing on his children and his new normal,’ Justin Blake said of his nephew.
A GoFundMe campaign started by Jacob Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, has raised more than $2.3million.
Jacob Blake (seen above after he was hospitalized in Milwaukee) has been rehabbing the spinal cord injuries he suffered as a result of the shooting at the hands of Kenosha, Wisconsin police on August 23, 2020
Blake, 30, was paralyzed from the waist down as a result of the shooting in August of last year
Blake's shooting sparked protests and widespread rioting in Kenosha. Two days after the shooting, Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded a third. Jurors on Wednesday were deliberating Rittenhouse's fate as prosecutors charged him with murder
The money is expected to go toward his medical care. It is not known which facility in Chicago is treating Jacob Blake.
DailyMail.com has sought comment from the Blake family and his attorneys.
Jurors in the Rittenhouse trial began the second day of deliberations on Wednesday. They were unable to reach a swift verdict on Tuesday.
About two hours into deliberations on the second day, jurors asked to view video presented at the trial and the judge said he would determine the procedures to allow that.
Prosecutor Thomas Binger said they should be able to view any video they wanted as many times as they wanted, while defense attorney Mark Richards said he would object to the jury viewing video taken by a drone that prosecutors said showed Rittenhouse pointing his gun at protesters before the shootings.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge for using an AR-style semi-automatic rifle to kill two men - Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum - and wound a third - Gaige Grosskreutz.
Blake says he was able to stand up in October of last year, saying his pain felt like his legs were sliding 'through a woodchipper'
A GoFundMe campaign started by Jacob Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, has raised more than $2.3million
The shootings took place during riots on August 25, 2020 - two days after Jacob Blake was shot.
The former police youth cadet is white, as were those he shot.
Rittenhouse testified he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors argued he provoked the violence.
The case has become a flashpoint in the U.S. debate over guns, racial-justice protests, vigilantism and law and order.
His shooting touched off protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August, after a summer that saw nationwide protests over other officer-involved shootings of black people across the country
Some of the protests became violent. Above, police stand near a building on fire in Kenosha
Blake said of the unrest: 'I didn't agree with what they were doing, but I understood'
In an interview with CNN this past August, Jacob Blake weighed in on the Rittenhouse case, saying that if he were black, he would have met the same fate as he did.
Blake said Rittenhouse's race may have played a part in how differently he was treated by police.
'That was like a kick right in the you know what,' he said.
'I was angry, I was furious, and I felt like I had every right to be.'
'For the reasons they said they shot me, they had every reason to shoot him, but they didn't. Honestly if his skin color was different, and I'm not prejudiced or a racist, he probably would have been labeled a terrorist.'
The jury in the Rittenhouse trial appeared to be overwhelmingly white. Prospective jurors were not asked to identify their race during the selection process, and the court did not provide a racial breakdown.
As the jury deliberated, dozens of protesters - some for Rittenhouse, some against - stood outside the courthouse.
Some talked quietly with those on the other side, while others shouted insults.
Justin Blake, Jacob Blake's uncle, has been protesting outside the courthouse during the Rittenhouse trial. He is seen above outside the courthouse on Tuesday waving a Pan-African flag
‘He has bad days, there’s no doubt, but he’s so grateful to be alive,’ Justin Blake (seen above in Kenosha on Tuesday) said
At the time of the shooting, Jacob Blake had a warrant for his arrest for charges including sexual assault and domestic violence
One woman could be heard repeatedly calling some Rittenhouse supporters 'white supremacists.'
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, who faced criticism over his response to the Kenosha protests in 2020, urged calm as the jury deliberated.
He announced last week that 500 members of the National Guard would stand ready for duty in Kenosha if needed.
'Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state,' Evers tweeted.
He added: 'I ask all those who choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights in every community to do so safely and peacefully.'
Justin Blake reacted angrily to Evers’ decision to deploy the National Guard, calling the governor a ‘coward’ and a ‘racist.’
He said that Black Lives Matter protesters in Kenosha were ‘positively focused.’'
‘The governor is a coward and a racist to send out National Guards,' Justin Blake told the New York Post.
'The only National Guard he's bringing out is for the people supporting Rittenhouse, while we'll be celebrating that somebody's going to jail, they'll be quite upset.'
Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, killed two people during the unrest in Kenosha after Blake's death
He also injured one other person. He faces two felony charges and is out on $2
