Multiple journalists have been shot with nonlethal rounds by law enforcement while reporting on protests—some of which escalated to riots—in Los Angeles over President Donald Trump‘s immigration crackdown in the city.
Dozens more are reported to have been assaulted or obstructed while covering the unrest, according to a tracker by Adam Rose, the press rights chair of the Los Angeles Press Club.
Newsweek has contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, the California Highway Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security—the agencies whose officers are among those responding to the protests—for comment via email.
Why It Matters
The incidents have renewed concerns about press freedom and the safety of reporters and photographers covering unrest. They also highlight the increasingly aggressive tactics of U.S. law enforcement toward members of the media during demonstrations.
Protests in Los Angeles began on Friday as federal authorities arrested immigrants in several locations throughout the city. Over the weekend, protesters blocked off a major freeway and burned self-driving cars as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades in clashes in downtown Los Angeles, though much of the city saw no violence.
The protests prompted Trump to call up the California National Guard, despite Governor Gavin Newsom‘s objections, which state and city officials say has only inflamed tensions.
Toby Canham
Canham, a veteran photographer who was on assignment for the New York Post, was filming police and protesters from an elevated position just off the 101 Freeway when a California Highway Patrol officer fired a rubber bullet at him from about 100 yards away on Sunday, striking him in the forehead, the Post reported. Footage captured by Canham, who was wearing a press pass at the time, shows he fell to the ground after being hit.
Canham was left with a large bruise on his forehead and spent Monday in the hospital being treated for whiplash and neck pain. “When I was hit, I was the only person overlooking the freeway. I wasn’t surrounded so I was an easy target,” he told the Post.
Nick Stern
Stern, a British news photographer, underwent emergency surgery after being hit by a nonlethal round while he was documenting the confrontation between police and protesters in Paramount, south of Los Angeles, on Sunday.
He told the BBC that a “plastic bullet” tore into his thigh and that several protesters helped carry him away from the area before a medic attended to him. He is recovering at a hospital in Long Beach followings surgery to remove the round.
Stern, who has long covered protests and riots around the world, said he ensures he is being “very deliberate and very obvious” when working. “I was out there wearing a press card around my neck, a big camera around my neck as well,” he told the BBC.
Lauren Tomasi
Tomasi, a U.S. correspondent for 9News Australia, was hit in the leg by a nonlethal round while reporting live from downtown Los Angeles on Saturday.
Video posted by 9News shows Tomasi, with a microphone in hand, reporting from the scene when an officer behind her suddenly raises their firearm and fires a nonlethal round at close range in Tomasi’s direction. Tomasi is seen crying out in pain and clutching her leg before she and her cameraman quickly move away from the area.
“Thanks for all your messages—I’m a bit sore, but I’m okay. Important we keep on telling the stories that need to be told,” Tomasi wrote on X on Sunday.
Ryanne Mena and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel
Mena, a crime reporter with the LA Daily News, and videographer Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, reported being shot with nonlethal rounds while covering the protests on Friday evening.
“Homeland Security agents shot me and other journalists with pepper ball bullets yesterday in Los Angeles,” Mena wrote on X on Saturday, alongside a photo of a bruised leg.
What People Are Saying
Katherine Jacobsen, the Committee to Protect Journalist’s U.S, Canada and Caribbean program coordinator, said in a statement: “We are greatly concerned by the reports of law enforcement officers’ shooting nonlethal rounds at reporters covering protests in Los Angeles. Any attempt to discourage or silence media coverage by intimidating or injuring journalists should not be tolerated.
“It is incumbent upon authorities to respect the media’s role of documenting issues of public interest.”
Adam Rose, the press rights chair of the Los Angeles Press Club, wrote on Bluesky: “Law enforcement is violently targeting press at protests around Los Angeles, from easily recognizable ‘mainstream’ outlets to freelancers and independents. ALL press have explicit legal protections in California.”
Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell addressed journalists being hit by nonlethal rounds during a press conference on Monday, saying: “We saw that. We’re very concerned about that and we’re looking into that.”
Matthew Mangino, former district attorney in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, previously told Newsweek that the police’s “continued use of nonlethal ammunition that cause bodily injury, and in some cases serious bodily injury, is going to open the City of Los Angeles to civil liability.”
What’s Next
Protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown are set to continue in Los Angeles, and have also spread to several other major cities on Monday.
Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta have filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment.
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