Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris spoke with Jacob Blake on Monday, telling the 29-year-old who was shot in the back by Kenosha, Wis. police that she was proud of him.Blake “told Sen. Harris that he was proud of her, and the senator told Jacob that she was also proud of him and how he is working through his pain,” lawyer Ben Crump said in a statement.Harris spoke with Blake, who is in the hospital with massive internal injuries and is paralyzed below the waist after the shooting, via phone while meeting with some of his family in the airport after she landed. Harris also spoke about the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and “implicit bias training,” Crump said.Harris called the meeting “really wonderful” saying, “I mean they’re an incredible family and what they’ve endured and they do it with such dignity and grace. And you know, they’re carrying the weight of a lot of voices on their shoulders.”Asked by reporters about a message, Harris said, “Just to, one, to express concern for their well-being and of course, for their brother and their son’s well being and to let them know that they have support.”In a CNN interview later Monday, lawyer B’Ivory LaMarr said Harris spoke “almost as a family member” who was “essentially counseling the family on grief and how to deal with these things and providing a good outlook to our community.”Police had been responding to a call last month that Blake, who had a warrant out for his arrest, had taken a woman’s keys and refused to return them. Blake allegedly broke into the same woman’s home in May and sexually assaulted her before stealing her truck.When the police arrived, Blake admitted to having a knife in his possession, according to Wisconsin’s Department of Justice. Police instructed Blake to “drop the knife” as he is seen on video holding something in his hand, though it is unclear what. Division of Criminal Investigation agents later recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard in Blake’s van.Video of the incident appears to show an officer shooting Blake several times in the back from close range as Blake tried to enter his van where his three children waited.Blake pleaded not guilty to charges of third-degree sexual assault and misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and trespassing in a Zoom hearing from his hospital bed last Friday.
