Carson offers sympathy to Blake's family at RNC

WASHINGTON (AP) — Housing Secretary Ben Carson is offering sympathies to the family of Jacob Blake, the Kenosha, Wisconsin, man whose shooting by police has sparked deadly violence.

Carson, the highest-ranking Black member of President Donald Trump’s administration, is the first Republican National Convention speaker Thursday to discuss Blake’s shooting.

Trump refused earlier Thursday to answer questions about the shooting.

Carson says his sympathies also extend to other families that have been affected by the “tragic events” in the Milwaukee suburb.

Authorities say Blake was shot in the back by police responding to a domestic dispute. The 29-year-old Black father of six is paralyzed from the waist down.

A 17-year-old from Illinois is charged in the fatal shooting of two protesters and the wounding of a third in Kenosha during unrest that followed Blake’s shooting.