Demonstrators in Kenosha brutally attacked a 71-year-old man who was defending buildings from vandals and looters during Monday night’s protests, throwing a plastic bottle filled with concrete, causing him to fall to the ground and break his jaw in two places.
Robert Cobb, 71, took to the streets to defend businesses after seeing footage of lawless protesters shamelessly setting buildings on fire.
According to the Kenosha News, “Cobb is a member of the Danish Brotherhood Lodge and close friend of Pamela ‘Sue’ Moniz, owner of The Mattress Shop” — two places protesters set ablaze. Cobb attempted to ward off looters and vandals by spraying them with a fire extinguisher. According to Moniz, owner of the mattress shop that protesters destroyed, someone pulled a gun on Cobb as he tried to defend the buildings.
“He sprayed them in the face so they had to take their masks off for identification,” she said. “Someone pulled a gun and another person yelled, ‘Don’t shoot this man, don’t shoot this man.’”
At another point, the elderly man was attacked with a plastic bottle filled with concrete, causing him to fall to the ground in a pool of blood.
“I absolutely cry every time I talk about it because this man did this for me,” Moniz said, according to Kenosha News. “He did it because that is the kind of person he is. He is so giving; so selfless”:
“He was just defending his business, that’s all he was doing and they walked up and fucked him up. Fucked him up,” the woman who taped the incident said as someone attended to Cobb’s injuries.
“I have it all on video. All of it. He didn’t deserve any of it. Any of it. This is just wrong guys,” she added.
Another woman could be heard in the background, contending that protesters are “just trying to protect” themselves.
“You don’t understand what terrifies these black men out here,” she said. “They’re not making it home to their families. Understand, respect. How about that?”
According to Kenosha News, Cobb was released from the hospital, but will have to undergo surgery to “put two removable plates in place and wire his jaw shut.”
Protests broke out in Kenosha Sunday following an officer-involved shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, 29, who was wanted on charges of sexual assault.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), a woman “reported that her boyfriend was present and was not supposed to be on the premises.” Police arrived on the scene and attempted to arrest Blake, trying to use a taser to subdue him, to no avail. Blake proceeded to a vehicle and opened the driver’s side door as police drew their weapons.
Per the Wisconsin DOJ:
While holding onto Mr. Blake’s shirt, Officer Rusten Sheskey fired his service weapon 7 times. Officer Sheskey fired the weapon into Mr. Blake’s back. No other officer fired their weapon. Kenosha Police Department does not have body cameras, therefore the officers were not wearing body cameras.
Blake admitted to authorities that he possessed a knife. Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) investigators later “recovered a knife from the driver’s side floorboard of Mr. Blake’s vehicle.”