A British photojournalist has spoken out on being rushed into emergency surgery after a non-lethal bullet tore into his thigh as he was reporting on the anti-ICE protests in LA.
Since Friday, (June 6) chaos has engulfed the California city as anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protestors and law enforcement violently clashed, with tensions erupting over the course of the weekend.
The stand-off was triggered by Donald Trump's immigration raids, with his administration pledging to detain as many as 3,000 people per day last month.
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On Sunday (June 8), photojournalist Nick Stern, who emigrated to the US in 2007, was covering the riots which broke out outside a Home Depot in Paramount when he felt a 'mighty 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 he was struck with a three-inch 'plastic bullet' fired by law enforcement for crowd control, which tore through his thigh and left him with 'muscle hanging' from his leg.
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Stern says he was very visibly a member of the media and not a demonstrator. "I was out there wearing a press card around my neck, a big camera around my neck as well," he told 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 journo was rushed into emergency surgery by medics to remove the bullet from his leg and is now recovering at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centre following the ordeal.
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It's the second incident of its kind since the riots broke out in the city, with Australian journo Lauren Tomasi also being caught in the 'crossfire', while reporting on the chaos.
In a shocking moment that was caught on camera, the 9News US correspondent appeared to be struck in the ankle with a rubber bullet. 9News has since confirmed that the journalist 'was left sore but otherwise unharmed'.
In a move which has been widely criticized, Trump has vowed to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to LA to clamp down on the protests, with White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying it's 'essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States'.
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But California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the move on social media, warning that it's 'purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions'.
ICE operations in LA are thought to have resulted in the arrests of 118 immigrants so far week, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Several dozen people have been arrested since the protests broke out. One was detained on Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers, PA reports.
Topics: US News, Donald Trump, Politics, Community
Chloe Rowland