Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- March 25, 2021
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- Luis Sinco (Los Angeles Times)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
Police look on during an eviction of homeless encampments at Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles, California, on March 25, 2021. Photojournalist Luis Sinco was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet fired by an officer while covering protests there that day.
Photojournalist Luis Sinco was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet fired by a Los Angeles Police Department officer while covering demonstrations near LA’s Echo Park Lake on March 25, 2021, according to news reports and a video posted on social media.
Sinco, a staff photojournalist for the Los Angeles Times, was covering protests against the city’s plan to clear a large homeless encampment, NPR reported in 2022. LAPD officers had tried to move journalists to a staging area a block away, but Sinco remained close to the park.
As he was taking photographs at the rear of a small group of protesters late that evening, Sinco heard a loud “pop” behind him, according to the report.
A video posted by another journalist shows a man wearing a tan jacket carrying a camera and a camera bag — identified by NPR as Sinco — getting grazed in the leg by a shot fired from behind by an officer. Sinco is then seen limping away.
The journalist, Jonah Valdez, who was also covering the encampment removal and protest, wrote in a post accompanying the video on social platform X that “LAPD officers are firing less-than-lethals as warning shots to push protesters back.”
NPR reported that Sinco was mildly injured by the shot.
Sinco called the firing of the shot “sadistic,” adding, “What was the point of that, right? I mean, it could have hurt me more badly. Thank God it didn’t.”
LAPD Capt. Stacy Spell told NPR: “When we’re looking at situations where there is either civil unrest or protest or after sporting events, our greatest concern is ensuring that there is preservation of life and that there’s preservation of property. It’s very gray at times as to who’s out there and with what intentions.”
Sinco and the LAPD did not respond to a request for comment.
At least 19 journalists were arrested or detained, and a third of them assaulted, while covering the protest, as reported in the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
