Photographer hit with projectiles and chemical irritant, shoved at Oregon protest

Independent photographer Robert Scherle was shoved, hit with crowd-control munitions and drenched in a chemical irritant at the hands of federal officers while covering a protest at the Federal Building in Eugene, Oregon, on Jan. 27, 2026.

Demonstrators had gathered outside the building that day to protest federal immigration enforcement activities and to hold a vigil for Alex Pretti, according to reports by local news outlets and Double Sided Media, which Scherle contributes to. Pretti is the Minneapolis resident who was killed by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota three days earlier.

Officers from the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection responded to protesters by firing chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions at them and detaining individuals at various times during the day, those reports said.

Scherle told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he arrived at the Federal Building around noon. He was taking photos of people being “grabbed” by DHS agents, and demonstrators’ angry reactions to the detentions, he said. As the confrontation between the federal agents and protesters escalated, more agents emerged.

Scherle, who was wearing a press pass and holding a professional camera, said he was pushed and shoved by federal agents as he photographed the interactions.

He told the Tracker he believed the agents knew he was a journalist documenting the events. “I think that could have been avoided, because I had a press pass,” he said.

The agents then sprayed a chemical irritant that he believed to be Mace at him and other journalists and protesters, and fired pepper balls as they retreated through a passageway.

“As we were passing through there, they started shooting the pepper balls up into the ceiling of this open passageway so that the pepper balls would rain down on us,” he said.

Scherle said he was hit with pepper balls “all over” his body. “It was dense, it was rapid fire. And it was cold that day, so I had a lot of heavy clothing on. So I could just feel a little bit on the parts of my body that weren’t as heavily covered.”

He said he was wearing a full-face respirator, which protected him somewhat, but not entirely, from the effects of the chemical irritant. “I was just saturated in the pepper spray, so that got all over my face, and that really burned,” he added.

Scherle went home to shower and returned to cover the ongoing protest later in the day, when he was also hit with crowd-control munitions.

“That’s the first time I’ve ever been tear-gassed in Eugene. And I’ve been covering direct actions for about six years now,” he said.

Several other reporters covering the protest that day were also hit with crowd-control munitions or chemical irritants.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment.