Several journalists have been injured while covering the protests in Los Angeles, including a television reporter who was struck when a law enforcement officer fired a nonlethal projectile while she was on the air.
The reporter, Lauren Tomasi of 9News Australia, a CNN affiliate, was conducting a live broadcast from the scene of a protest on Sunday afternoon when she was hit.
Video of the broadcast shows Ms. Tomasi standing off to the side of an intersection in downtown Los Angeles. Armed police officers, some on horseback, are seen behind her, squaring off against protesters as booms are heard in the background.
“The situation has now rapidly deteriorated, the L.A.P.D. moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets,” Ms. Tomasi says in the report, referring to officers from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Then, the video shows a law enforcement officer pointing a weapon toward Ms. Tomasi and firing it. She shrieks and limps away. According to the broadcaster, Ms. Tomasi was hit with a projectile and left sore but not seriously hurt.
According to CNN, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement in support of Ms. Tomasi, saying “all journalists should be able to do their work safely.”
It was not immediately clear whether the officer had been aiming at Ms. Tomasi, or what law enforcement agency the officer belonged to. The L.A.P.D., the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security are among the agencies whose officers were responding to the protests. The L.A.P.D. said it did not have “any comment or statement on any specific incident pertaining to the protests.”
Rubber bullets and projectiles are billed as nonlethal alternatives to live rounds, but they can cause serious injuries, prompting growing calls to ban their use. They are regularly used by police departments for crowd control during protests or crowd unrest, and were used during the nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd, in 2020.
In another episode, Nick Stern, a British photojournalist based in Southern California, told The Guardian that he had been seriously injured by what appeared to be a nonlethal projectile fired at him while covering a protest on Saturday in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County. He was left with a wound in his leg and taken in for surgery, according to news media reports.
A New York Times reporter was struck with a rubber bullet by officers late Sunday in downtown Los Angeles. The reporter was treated at a hospital but not seriously injured.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in London.
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