Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 9, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- Noel Phillips (ITV)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
Noel Phillips, a reporter for British broadcast channel ITV, was shot with a crowd-control munition while covering anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.
Noel Phillips, a North America correspondent for British broadcaster ITV, was shot with a crowd-control munition live on air, while covering an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.
The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.
In a report for Good Morning Britain the morning after the assault, Phillips said that he had been lying on the ground while talking to several protesters shortly before going on air. He said it was the safest option, “given the fact that the situation around us was so volatile.”
“As I was laying on the floor, I felt as though an enormous ton of bricks had fallen on my arm,” Phillips said. “I realized, I think, within 20 to 30 seconds that a rubber bullet had grazed the top layer of my skin and had caused a bit of injury.”
“It gives you a sense of just how unpredictable things are here. There has been a constant flow of fireworks and rubber bullets,” he said.
The Los Angeles Police Department has said that it no longer uses rubber bullets, instead relying on other forms of “less-lethal” munitions, including foam rounds.
In footage posted to Instagram, Phillips can be heard shouting in pain seconds after he was struck by a crowd-control munition, and a semicircular abrasion is later seen on his forearm. Phillips told ITV that he sought medical attention and determined that his arm, while swollen, had not been broken.
When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to its social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s protest response, the department did not address the use of munitions against identifiable press.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
