Wisconsin DOJ releases Kenosha officers’ training records

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Department of Justice on Wednesday released the training records for the three Kenosha police officers involved in last month’s shooting of Jacob Blake, which sparked several nights of unrest.

Officers Ryan Sheskey, Brittany Meronek and Vincent Arenas responded to a domestic disturbance on Aug. 23. Sheskey ended up shooting Blake seven times in the back, leaving him paralyzed. Blake is Black. Sheskey is white.

Some of the protests following the shooting turned violent. Prosecutors have charged 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse of Antioch, Illinois, with shooting two people to death and wounding another during one of the demonstrations.

Sheskey’s records show he attended multiple classes since he became a Kenosha officer in 2013, including courses on bike patrol, a 2017 class on the 2012 mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek and a 2017 class on how to interact with citizens and a 2019 course on crisis intervention.

Meronek’s records indicate she joined the Kenosha Police Department in January and had just finished her basic training in May.

Arenas’ records indicate he joined the department in February 2019. He noted in a letter to the department that he previous served as a U.S. Capitol police officer in Washington, D.C.

The Justice Department redacted the officers’ birth dates, Social Security numbers, drivers’ license numbers, military service records, educational records as juveniles and the the results of their criminal background searches.