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During a rally in the South, a demonstrator was hit in the face by a projectile fired at close range by a federal officer. california The protests left him bleeding and seriously injured, according to videos and accounts from other protesters at a news conference Tuesday.
gathered outside the city’s federal immigration building on Friday. santa ana in response to the shooting death of Renee Good minneapolis A federal agent’s comments sparked a wave of protests across the country.
Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Santa Ana into the evening, with a small group remaining outside the federal building shouting obscenities through loudspeakers. Immigration and Customs Enforcementvideo display. Once, they burned what looked like American Flags were hung on the steps of the building while chants of “Justice for Renee Goode.”
Demonstrators came to the square, with a handful of agents wearing riot gear and holding crowd control gear. At one point, officers forcibly moved a demonstrator back to the steps as the crowd continued to chant and agents appeared to urge them to move back. An orange cone can then be seen rolling into the square and police begin firing ammunition as they approach the crowd. It’s unclear who threw the cones.
In the video, the injured demonstrator, known only as “K” to other protesters and a family member, can be seen shouting through a megaphone along with others outside the building, which was flanked by several police officers in riot gear. The officers approached the crowd and then grabbed the arm of another demonstrator, identified in the federal criminal complaint as Katelyn Skye Seitz, and pulled them to the steps.
In response, “K” and some other demonstrators stepped forward and shouted. A police officer fired a crowd control weapon, striking “K” from several feet away. “K” grabbed his face and threw him to the ground. The video shows an officer grabbing “K” by his shirt and dragging him backwards to the ground. His face was covered in blood and other demonstrators chanted “Don’t touch him.” Police led “K” into the federal building, where video later showed him lying face down on the ground and being handcuffed.
Video of the incident was captured by OC Hawk, a company that shoots breaking news in Orange County.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin called the group violent rioters and said two police officers were injured. Two protesters were arrested and charged with assaulting a federal officer and disorderly conduct, she said. She did not respond to questions about the nature of injuries to police or injuries to protesters.
Protesters say he is blind in his left eye
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions about what type of pellets were fired, but another protester said Tuesday that they were pepper balls.
According to his aunt, Jeri Rees, “K” is blind in his left eye.
Reese said her nephew, a 21-year-old college student, spent two days in the hospital and underwent six hours of surgery on his left eye.
He was released from the hospital on Tuesday and doctors were working to determine the composition of the fragments to assess whether additional procedures would be needed to remove them, she said. He was hit in the left eye and suffered a fractured skull, Reese said.
“He was completely blind” in that eye, she said. “He had a hole in his eyeball.”
Reese said her nephew was issued a ticket for disorderly conduct.
In a statement read by another protester on Tuesday, “K” said he felt a buzzing and pressure around his skull and was being dragged toward the building, bleeding and struggling to breathe.
“I will never see with my left eye again, not even light,” he said in a statement. “I’m glad I’m alive to tell my story.”
Details of the injury could not immediately be independently confirmed. The protester from the Dare to Fight group declined to say which hospital he was taken to.
Seitz, one of the arrested protesters, said the group was here to “rightly protest the brutal execution of Renee Goode and the government agencies that support ICE’s continued brutality.” Seitz identified himself as Skye Jones at the press conference.
A federal complaint alleges that Seitz failed to leave the property despite warnings and threw orange cones at officers, then resisted arrest and struck an officer in the shoulder and groin. Details of the second set of charges were not immediately clear, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to questions about them.
Other videos showed demonstrators still gathering and yelling at agents after clashes broke out. Some police officers stood at the door of the building as another demonstrator approached. Police can be heard firing more bullets. Protesters walked back into the crowd covered in white powder. He appeared to have cuts on his face and other demonstrators called for paramedics.