Journalist struck by foam round while covering LA immigration protest

Ford Fischer, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the independent media outlet News2Share, was struck by a foam projectile while filming a protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 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 LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Fischer had traveled to LA to document the protests and spent four consecutive days on the ground. He told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was filming a tense but mostly stagnant standoff between protesters and the Los Angeles Police Department when some demonstrators began throwing objects. Officers responded with tear gas and impact rounds.

At the time, Fischer was positioned near a group of journalists and clearly identifiable as press. He wore a Capitol Hill press badge and carried a full-size studio camera rig with a mounted phone for livestreaming — gear he described as “unmistakable.”

In a video Fischer posted to social platform X, a wide gap is visible between protesters and police officers, with some demonstrators throwing objects toward the police line. As officers returned fire with what Fischer identified as 40 mm foam rounds, one struck him about 30 seconds into the footage.

“Got shot in the stomach,” he said with a groan, while continuing to document the scene as flash-bang grenades exploded nearby.

The strike left a painful welt and a ring of burst blood vessels. The bruise, Fischer said, remained visible for more than a month. Though a friend later confirmed the injury wasn’t serious, he described the pain as “very sharp.”

“They knew, or should have known, that I was press,” he told the Tracker. “It’s either a negligent act to then hit me, an unacceptable mistake, or it was specifically targeted.”

He kept filming for another 20 to 30 minutes that night, then returned to cover the protests over the next three days. But the incident shifted his sense of safety.

“It creates a greater level of precaution,” Fischer said. “I might be more bold about my vicinity to the action if I wasn’t as scared of the possibility of being hit.”

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. In a June 10 statement posted to X, the department acknowledged that LAPD officers used numerous “less-lethal rounds” when responding to the protests, but did not address the use of munitions against identifiable press.

The Tracker has documented four other instances in which Fischer was assaulted while covering protests, including two involving law enforcement.