Photojournalist shot with pepper balls by state trooper at Chicago-area protest

Photojournalist Jon Farina was shot multiple times with crowd-control munitions by Illinois State Police while reporting on protests outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview on Nov. 1, 2025.

The facility, where detainees are being held and processed ahead of deportation, has drawn escalating protests and federal response since early September, following the Department of Homeland Security’s launch of the federal immigration crackdown, Operation Midway Blitz.

Following pressure from Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a unified command composed of local law enforcement agencies and headed by the Illinois State Police took over the protest response Oct. 2, establishing designated protest zones around the building.

Farina and journalist JT Cestkowski were reporting for the news outlet Status Coup, livestreaming as protesters gathered — some in Halloween costumes — outside the facility.

“This is what it’s actually like on the ground here in Chicago, as people stand up and try to resist the Trump administration right now,” Cestkowski said about an hour into the stream. “We are the only independent media that has been on the ground here for the last month showing you these demonstrations, that have played out in much the same way: Protesters come out, they try to demonstrate against ICE, they are met with force by not the federal agents but by Illinois state authorities.”

At approximately an hour and 15 minutes into the footage captured by Farina, protesters are seen forming a line with shields that Cestkowski said appeared to be made of foam core board, bearing messages including “Free our neighbors” and “Migra y policia la misma porqueria” (“ICE and police are the same shit”). The protesters slowly march forward, eventually met by lines of state troopers.

A trooper armed with a pepper ball gun fires a series of the chemical munitions at the feet of the demonstrators and another announces that it is an unlawful assembly. As troopers kneel to don gas masks, another with a bullhorn walks along the grass on the side of the road and appears to directly order the journalists assembled there to comply with the dispersal order.

A few minutes later, as troopers shove back protesters using long wooden rods, Cestkowski says, “I just got shot in the foot with a pepper ball just then. They’re shooting the press, pushing us.”

Cestkowski told the Tracker that he was standing behind Farina, who he said was the intended target. “We were standing apart from the protesters, with other press, holding our camera and microphone and wearing our press credentials,” he said.

He added that Farina was struck multiple times in his shins. In the footage, pepper ball residue is visible on his knee and foot.

Cestkowski asks him if the shots hurt, to which Farina responds, “No, not at all, I didn’t feel it. I’m kind of upset that I didn’t bring my gas mask, though.”

When reached by email about the assaults of Farina, Cestkowski and a third journalist that day, Illinois State Police Chief Public Information Officer Melaney Arnold wrote, “How were the individuals identified as press; what were they wearing? In situations like this, it can be difficult to distinguish between protestors and media.”

Arnold did not respond to subsequent emails or the initial questions sent by the Tracker. In response to an incident in October, Arnold told the Tracker, “ISP and the Unified Command’s highest priority is to protect the community and the rights of individuals to express their First Amendment rights — whether they are protestors or members of the media.”