A British photojournalist has shared his experience of being rushed into emergency surgery after being struck by a non-lethal bullet in his thigh while covering the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
Since June 6, the city of Los Angeles has been in turmoil as confrontations between anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protestors and law enforcement have turned violent. Tensions have escalated throughout the weekend.
The confrontations were sparked by immigration raids ordered by the Trump administration, which aims to detain up to 3,000 individuals per day as of last month.
On June 8, photojournalist Nick Stern, who moved to the US in 2007, was documenting the riots outside a Home Depot in Paramount when he experienced severe pain in his leg.
“I’m walking around taking photos and was untouched until around 9.00pm. I was walking across the road when I felt a mighty pain in my leg. I put my hand down and felt a lump kind of sticking out the back of my leg,” he told the Guardian.
Stern believes a three-inch ‘plastic bullet’ used for crowd control by law enforcement struck him, causing damage to his thigh and leaving ‘muscle hanging’ from his leg.
He emphasized that he was clearly identifiable as a media member and not a protestor. “I was out there wearing a press card around my neck, a big camera around my neck as well,” he explained to the BBC.
“People came over to help and got me on the curb. A medic was called, who cut off my clothes. In my leg was what felt like a five centimeter hole with muscle hanging out of it and blood all down my leg. The medic put a tourniquet on it, and a journalist I was with took me to ER.”
Warning: graphic content
The 60-year-old journalist was quickly taken for emergency surgery to remove the bullet and is now recovering at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centre.
This incident is the second of its kind since the protests began in Los Angeles, with Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi also affected while reporting on the disturbances.
In a video captured during the event, the 9News US correspondent appears to be hit in the ankle by a rubber bullet. 9News later confirmed the journalist ‘was left sore but otherwise unharmed’.
In a contentious decision, Trump has announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to address the protests, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stating it’s ‘essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States’.
However, California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the decision on social media, warning that it is ‘purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions’.
ICE operations in Los Angeles have reportedly led to the arrest of 118 immigrants so far this week, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Since the protests began, several dozen individuals have been taken into custody. Among them, one person was arrested on Sunday for launching a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for riding a motorcycle into a line of officers, according to PA reports.