Nick Stern, a British news photographer based in Los Angeles, is set to undergo emergency surgery after being struck by a non-lethal round during a protest against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday.
Mr Stern told the Guardian that he had been covering the demonstration near a branch of Home Depot in Paramount, where immigrant workers are typically hired for day work, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg. “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 said.
He believes he was hit by a non-lethal round used by deputies alongside flash-bang stun grenades for crowd control. A medic applied a tourniquet, and a fellow journalist took him to the emergency room. “It hurt so much that I thought they might be firing live rounds,” Mr Stern said.
Mr Stern is at the trauma centre at Long Beach Memorial awaiting surgery. A doctor who examined his X-rays said the dimensions of the wound indicated a non-lethal round. The LA County Sheriff’s Department deployed more than 100 deputies in response to the protest, which Sheriff Robert Luna estimated grew to 350–400 people. Luna said the protest turned violent, with some throwing objects at officers, leading to the use of teargas and other munitions.
