Photojournalist hit in head with flash bang at New Jersey protest

A crowd-control munition bounced off freelance photojournalist Edna Leshowitz’s head while she was covering an immigration protest outside a detention center in Newark, New Jersey, on May 30, 2026.

Protests outside the Delaney Hall immigration detention facility began May 22, when many detainees went on a hunger strike. Members of Congress, state and local lawmakers and rights groups have alleged dire conditions at the facility. The Department of Homeland Security has denied allegations of detainee mistreatment.

Federal officers responded to the protests with chemical irritants, physical force and arrests, as did state police in the days that followed.

Despite being injured in a stampede at a protest outside Delaney Hall days earlier, Leshowitz told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she felt it was important to return May 30.

When she arrived, New Jersey State Police, Essex County sheriff’s deputies and Newark police officers in riot gear lined the protest. Mounted state police patrolled nearby. Throughout the evening, officers repeatedly deployed flash-bang grenades and tear gas into the crowd.

“It was a pretty extraordinary show of force,” Leshowitz said.

The state police gave no warning or dispersal order before launching crowd-control munitions, according to Leshowitz. During the protest, a flash-bang grenade bounced off her head. Leshowitz said she did not see the state police officer who fired it and could not say whether it was aimed at her. She was wearing press credentials and carrying a camera at the time.

“It hit my head. If it did go off, it could have been bad,” she said. “And just the fact that they were OK with that.”

The barrage of tear gas also burned her eyes and made it difficult to breathe. Leshowitz, who has asthma, said she repeatedly flushed her eyes as officers continued deploying chemical irritants.

“I had a mask. But when it’s constant, you don’t have a lot of time to recover in between,” she said.

The New Jersey State Police Office of Public Information did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

In a statement posted to X early May 31, New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport wrote that state and local law enforcement had responded to “aggressive actions” outside Delaney Hall. She also announced that a curfew would be in place around the facility until further notice. It did not address the use of force against members of the press.