Photographer arrested, pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed by federal officers

Photographer John Abernathy was shot with crowd-control munitions, subjected to intense tear gas and deliberately pepper-sprayed as federal officers detained and ultimately arrested him while he documented protests in the Minneapolis suburb of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, on Jan. 15, 2026.

Abernathy told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived at the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building at around noon to document a veteran-led protest against the ongoing federal immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities area.

The building has been a focal point of protests for its use as a base for the federal officers, and demonstrations escalated after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good while conducting an operation Jan. 7 in Minneapolis.

The protest was initially relatively quiet, Abernathy said, with protesters occasionally walking into the street and chanting while a few federal agents stood near vehicles blocking the entrance to the building’s parking lot.

“At some point, a whole bunch of agents came out — I wouldn’t doubt if it was 100 or something — in almost a military formation of several rows,” he told the Tracker, adding that the officers included agents from Border Patrol, ICE and the Bureau of Prisons.

The agents formed a line and, in several quick bursts, pushed back the crowd with batons and crowd-control munition weapons. While the officers’ show of force agitated the crowd, Abernathy said, it was the arrival of “far-right agitators” that triggered the chaos that followed.

“There were three to five agitators, and they all had pepper spray in their hands,” he told the Tracker. “The agitators were able to stand with their backs near the agents, and the agents didn’t seem to mind it, and they didn’t mind that they had pepper spray either.”

Abernathy saw that one of the individuals had a loose hold on a canister, so he snatched it, tossing it under a nearby tree so that it wouldn’t be used against anyone.

He said that at some point amid the chaos, agents deployed a disorientation device — either a flash bang or a tear gas canister — into the crowd.

“I went over there to see what was happening, to possibly photograph it, and while I was there, I got shot twice with pepper bullets,” he said, noting that he was not moving toward or facing the agents at the time. “I’m clearly only a photographer, I don’t protest at all. I’m not screaming or chanting or anything, I’m just there observing and photographing.”

Abernathy said the shots “hurt like hell,” and he quickly ran back across the street and away from the main point of skirmish. But with his back to the agents, he was unaware that they were targeting him once again.

“All of a sudden I got hit from behind without warning, and I was lying facedown on the ground, and for a second I didn’t know what was going on,” Abernathy said. “There were at least two agents on top of me, and they’re screaming at me that ‘We got you because we saw you bear-spraying the crowd.’”

He said he denied the accusation and attempted to comply with the officers’ orders, but was unable to put his hands behind his back as his arms were pinned beneath his chest by the agents’ knees on his back.

“Then they set off a tear gas canister very close to me. The smoke was so thick that I couldn’t breathe, and I was gagging,” Abernathy said. “At one point, I thought, ‘I’m either going to throw up or I’m going to pass out.’ I yelled my name out, and then I yelled, ‘I can’t breathe.’ And when that came out of my mouth, I realized, ‘This shit is getting real.’”

When he looked up, he saw another photographer — Pierre Lavie — and freed his hands enough to quickly toss Lavie his camera so it wouldn’t be seized by the agents. Abernathy told the Tracker that he tried to throw his phone as well, but it didn’t go far.

“Right when it hit the ground, I saw a green boot step on it,” he said. “It was the most disappointing feeling, almost, that I’ve ever had. And I just thought ‘Fuck,’ and put my head on the ground.”

Abernathy later learned that Lavie had managed to reach under the agent’s foot to retrieve the cellphone as he attempted to stomp on it.

Agents then reached around and pepper-sprayed Abernathy directly in the face, the photographer told the Tracker, dousing him in the chemical irritant.

“As soon as that hit me, I was 100% defenseless. It was extreme pain. My eyes were burning, my face was burning and that was near my last breath,” Abernathy said. “Then they pulled my arms out and handcuffed me and lifted me up.”

PetaPixel reported that, using the metadata from Lavie’s photos, from the moment Abernathy was tackled to him being fully restrained took only eight seconds.

Abernathy was taken into the Whipple building and, when he was unable to answer the agents’ questions because of the extreme pain, they took him outside to wipe his face and rinse his eyes.

When back inside and questioned why he was there, Abernathy repeatedly informed the agents that he was only there as a photographer to document the protest.

The agents then informed him that they had video of him using the bear spray — which they refused to show him — but that they would “go easy” on him and only charge him with impeding and obstructing normal access. A hearing on the federal charge has not been set as of publication.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.

Abernathy said that, following his release, he was able to track down Lavie that evening and retrieve his camera and cellphone, both of which were remarkably undamaged. He then headed to the hospital.

“They photographed my wounds, and I have two pretty serious — deep and sort of bloody-looking — bruises from the pepper bullets, and then I had chemical burns in my eye and have to put medication in it daily,” he told the Tracker. “I think it’s a pretty clear and horrendous violation of my civil rights, and they had no cause to do that.”

He added that, in the wake of his arrest, he’s received thousands of hate messages online, but also an “absolute, overwhelming outpour of love from people thanking me and thanking Pierre for that epic photo.”

“It represents so much more than me. It’s a photo of the struggle against something the whole world is watching.”