Journalist shot with crowd-control munitions at immigration protest near LA

Ben Camacho, cofounder of and journalist for The Southlander, was shot twice with crowd-control munitions by law enforcement while covering protests in the California cities of Compton and Paramount on June 7, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around Los Angeles of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with Los Angeles law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.

Demonstrations the following day were centered around a Home Depot in Paramount, a predominantly Latino suburb of Los Angeles, after Border Patrol agents were spotted nearby, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Camacho told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that by the time he and a colleague arrived at around 4:30 p.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies had formed a police line blocking the bridge that led to the Home Depot and connected Paramount to the adjacent city of Compton.

“Folks were doing a street takeover at the intersection nearby, which is nothing out of the ordinary for Compton,” Camacho said. “Closer to the police line, people were definitely organizing, protesting. There were people that were kind of ducked behind a semi-truck and throwing things — whether it’s cement, bricks or rocks — toward the cops.”

He said he documented the back-and-forth between deputies and demonstrators for nearly four hours, and was carrying his professional camera as well as wearing an official press credential, gas mask and ballistic goggles. Throughout that time, deputies would throw flash bangs and tear gas toward the crowd, Camacho said, and sporadically shoot pepper balls.

“When 9 p.m. hit, there was a flash bang that was thrown into a small group of people that was a bit closer to the police line,” he told the Tracker. “I was keeping an eye on those people because my colleague was there, and I wanted to make sure he was OK.”

While Camacho said his colleague was uninjured, independent photojournalist Nick Stern — who had also been documenting near the group — was struck in the leg with a munition which caused a two-inch gash and embedded in his leg. The Tracker has documented that incident here.

After helping Stern to a nearby sidewalk, Camacho walked back toward the demonstration and began posting an update to his live reporting on social media.

“I’m on my phone standing there when I hear the rubber bullet launcher go off, and suddenly I’m just in pain,” Camacho recounted. “Something just hit my leg really hard, right on my kneecap, and I bent over and just started screaming.”

He said he flagged down a passerby to help him move to safety, but less than 30 seconds after he was first struck he was hit again, directly on his elbow.

“It felt like my brain was on fire. I was screaming like I’ve never screamed before,” Camacho said. “And now the crowd was running — there was a full on stampede. So I’m now shot twice, I’m in some of the worst pain I’ve ever felt and I have to keep moving because otherwise I’m going to get trampled and possibly killed.”

Camacho said he was eventually able to catch his breath and make his way back to the street takeover at the intersection. He then reached his colleague, who helped him back to his car and the pair left the protest.

“The next day, I went to urgent care nearby where they took x-rays just to make sure I didn’t have any shrapnel. They patched me up and they said I was going to be OK, and I’ve been resting since then,” he said.

He told the Tracker that the fact he was directly struck twice in such quick succession is “eerie.”

“That, to me, just feels really off. Because there were many, many other people around me,” Camacho said. “And to shoot the same person twice within the span of 30 seconds at the most, that feels targeted.”

In a statement emailed to the Tracker June 10, the Sheriff’s Department said it prioritizes maintaining access for credentialed media, “especially during emergencies and critical incidents.”

“The LASD does not condone any actions that intentionally target members of the press, and we continuously train our personnel to distinguish and respect the rights of clearly identified journalists in the field,” a public information officer wrote. “We remain open to working with all media organizations to improve communication, transparency, and safety for all parties during public safety operations.”

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include comment from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.