A video journalist was injured on Tuesday during a tumultuous scene involving federal agents at a Manhattan immigration courthouse less than a week after another officer was captured on video shoving a woman in a confrontation.
A hallway on the 12th floor at 26 Federal Plaza, the site of immigration courtrooms, descended into chaos as two women got into an elevator followed by masked agents and a journalist, Dean Moses of amNY. The brief melee, captured on video, began to unfold when one of the agents cursed at Mr. Moses and shoved him out of the elevator and back toward a scrum of about a dozen journalists and camera crews crowded behind him.
Eyewitnesses said that another agent then pushed a second journalist, Olga Fedorova, who was in the hallway outside the elevator, onto the floor.
The scene unfolded so swiftly that it was difficult to ascertain the exact sequence of events.
“I just knew that I had to try to get photos of whatever is happening,” said Ms. Fedorova, a freelance photographer who said that she tried to capture pictures of the agents shoving the first journalist. “It was incredibly quick.”
Ms. Fedorova said that she felt herself flying backward and falling before she got up quickly to take more pictures as the elevator doors closed. Ms. Fedorova said that the third journalist was already on the floor when she hit the ground. She said he appeared to be badly hurt. It was not clear how he ended up on the floor.
“His camera was next to him — it was still on,” she said. “He was covering his face and he was moaning in pain and he was unable to move.”
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