Just as with other police officer-involved shootings across the United States, the August shooting of a black man named Jacob Blake was subject to misinformation and lies peddled by the media and other sources.

On August 23, Jacob Blake was shot and paralyzed by police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The shooting and Blake’s subsequent hospitalization sparked several nights of violent riots and property destruction in the Midwestern town of about 100,000 people. Initial estimates put the price tag of the violent riots and looting starting at $50 million. At least $2 million of the total damages were to properties owned by the city.

The common and misleading narrative was that Blake was unarmed and  not disturbing   police officers or  the community. However, Blake was allegedly reaching for a knife in the door of his car before police officers fired their weapons.

Also, reports surfaced that Blake’s actions were  the reason that  police officers were dispatched to talk to him. Blake was wanted on a warrant for felony domestic abuse that his girlfriend filed against him at the time of the confrontation. At least one witness told investigators that officers were telling Blake to drop the  knife, but the witness did not see Blake holding a knife due to the car blocking his view. The officers also tried to use a taser on Blake, but this  did not succeed  in de-escalating the situation.

Another report noted that Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran police officer who had fired at Blake, previously responded to a domestic incident between Blake and his girlfriend.

Blake’s family and attorney disputed many of these reports and called it “gaslighting,” which is the practice of manipulating information to encourage the public to question the facts of the situation.