Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 6, 2026
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- Jonny Morales (Independent)
- Assailant
- Private individual
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
The moment Jonny Morales, behind the camera, is punched by a far-right activist, at center in red hat, at an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 6, 2026.
Independent photographer Jonny Morales was struck in the face by a right-wing extremist at a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on June 6, 2026.
The protest was held outside the city’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where immigrants are being confined. It marked the anniversary of the large protests against immigration raids that began in and around LA in June 2025.
Morales said a member of the far-right Proud Boys who was among the Jan. 6, 2021, defendants pardoned by Trump was at the protest, getting into conflicts with individuals at the demonstration.
“He started swinging at everyone. And me,” Morales told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. “I felt like it was just me being too close to the scene.”
Morales said the man punched him in the face. At a protest the following month, the same individual punched him again.
“When he’s attacking people, he’s literally in a primal state; it’s so bizarre,” Morales said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
