When there is an especially horrific police shooting like Jacob Blake's, there's a familiar rhythm leading up to the district attorney inevitably announcing that they won't seek charges against the officers involved. The police are put on standby for potential unrest, which is usually a great overtime opportunity for them. Then we hear the explanations for why what we all saw wasn't a crime.

Kenosha, Wisconsin, police officer Rusten Sheskey shot Blake as Blake walked away from him during a domestic disturbance call. Seven bullets struck Blake in the back, paralyzing him. During a press conference Tuesday afternoon, Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley declared that Sheskey had no choice.

NBC News reports:

Graveley said multiple times Tuesday that it was "incontrovertible" that Blake had a knife in hand when the incident occurred and that Blake admitted to getting a knife. Sheskey told investigators that he was unsure whether Blake was going to kidnap or hurt the child in the car.

"Officer Sheskey knows that an armed man with a felony warrant, who just forcefully resisted arrest, appears to be about to flee in a disputed vehicle, and there's at least one child in the back," Graveley said. "Those are all the facts that Officer Sheskey has, in the context of a domestic abuse case at the point he has to decide what to do next."

Shooting a person in the back is not what anyone should decide to do next, but it's particularly galling that Sheskey chooses to dress the violence up as consideration for the child he traumatized. Blake was attempting to leave with one of his three kids.