Chicago journalist shot with crowd-control munition by federal officers

Shawn Mulcahy, news editor for the Chicago Reader, was shot with a crowd-control munition by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025.

An array of Chicago-area journalists and others sued President Donald Trump and various federal agencies on Oct. 6 over the violent response by federal law enforcement to ongoing anti-deportation protests outside the ICE facility.

In a declaration filed in support of the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order, Mulcahy wrote that he has been regularly attending protests at the facility since Sept. 5, and is always identifiable as press: wearing press credentials around his neck and a helmet marked “PRESS,” as well as carrying a notepad or filming.

On Sept. 26, Mulcahy wrote that he was standing on a street near the facility filming an arrest when he was shot with what he believes was a “rubber bullet or foam ball.”

“I was clearly engaged in news-gathering activity and was targeted for this action,” he wrote.

Mulcahy, who was not immediately available for comment, added that that was not the only time he or other members of the press were deliberately targeted by the federal officers.

“That same Friday morning, I was part of a large group of press standing apart from the protestors on what I believe is a public street. We were clearly identifiable as journalists,” he wrote. “Federal law enforcement threw tear gas directly at us, and another agent began shooting pepper balls directly at us.”

He said that ICE’s use of violent tactics has escalated over the course of the month, and each time he has returned to the facility, there have been more law enforcement “who appear more agitated and more heavily armed.”

“I intend to continue reporting at the Broadview facility, but my ability to do so is harder because of the violence directed at me and my colleagues,” Mulcahy wrote. “While I have not been breaking any laws or disobeying any orders from federal officers, I am afraid that I will be targeted, injured, or arrested for continuing to report at Broadview.”

ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a press release that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”

“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago reported, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”

According to a Sept. 27 news release, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”

Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — affecting multiple journalists — and later arrested a reporter.

“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”