Photojournalist shot in thigh with sponge-tipped round at Minneapolis protest

Joe Caffrey, director of photography for KSTP-TV, was shot in the thigh with a crowd-control munition while documenting protests against federal immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 24, 2026.

Demonstrations in the Twin Cities area have been mounting since the beginning of January, following the expansion of an immigration enforcement crackdown known as Operation Metro Surge. Earlier that day, federal officers shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti as he filmed their activities and attempted to help a woman they had pushed to the ground.

Caffrey told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that when he heard about the shooting, he called the station to help with coverage. He was immediately paired with a longtime colleague, Eric Rasmussen, and they were dispatched to the scene.

Caffrey said the pair had just started up their live broadcasting gear and walked over to get a shot of a person being transported on an ambulance gurney when they heard agents order everyone to back up.

“I came over to pan the camera onto Eric as they were going to come to us live, and as soon as they took us live, the ICE agents had deployed some of their tear gas, and Eric really got a mouthful,” he said, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Caffrey said they immediately tried to move back alongside the rest of the crowd.

“As we were kind of turning around, I still had the camera on live and Eric was kind of coughing on the air, choking, and I felt a little deflection of something off the side of my hip, but I didn’t really think much of it at the time,” he continued.

He said it wasn’t until approximately an hour later, during one of their returns to their vehicle — given the wind chill of -30 to -40 degrees — that he realized how much his leg hurt and that it was swollen.

The photojournalist had earlier found what he said was a 40-caliber sponge grenade. “I kind of picked it up and said, ‘This must be what hit me.’ Later that night, I just went home, and I had my wife take a picture of this, just in case.”

He added that he also had to shower to remove the tear gas and other chemical irritant residue covering him.

Caffrey told the Tracker on Feb. 12 that he could still feel a knot on his leg and was experiencing discomfort when sleeping on that side. “But really, I feel pretty lucky that I think it may have grazed me, that it just deflected off me and didn’t hit me square. It could have been worse.”

He added that while he and Rasmussen were clearly identifiable as press, he couldn’t say whether they were deliberately targeted.

“We did have the big camera on the tripod on my shoulder, although there were maybe two or three people, including Eric, next to me,” Caffrey said. “I think that they just shot in our direction intentionally, and I think that they saw the big camera and it’s like, ‘Hey, there’s a big target we can shoot at.’”

He added, “There was no good reason for them to shoot at us.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to requests concerning the agents’ actions that day.