Photojournalist struck in head, leg with crowd-control munitions amid LA protest

Freelance photojournalist Ted Soqui was shot by federal officers in the face and shin with a pepper ball and rubber bullet while covering anti-deportation protests in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025.

The protests began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with local law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard and then the U.S. Marines over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

According to a June 18 lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Press Club against Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Soqui had been documenting the protests at LA’s Federal Building each day from around 11 a.m. until early evening.

On June 8, Soqui was reporting alongside other journalists, standing approximately 15 feet from both demonstrators and federal officers, according to the suit. The photojournalist, who has covered protests throughout his decades-long career, said the protest was tense but that escalation did not seem imminent.

As DHS officers pushed back protesters, Soqui was struck in the left cheekbone with a pepper ball and in the right shin with a rubber bullet.

There was no marked perimeter, audible dispersal order or warning that DHS agents would use force, according to the lawsuit, and the shootings of Soqui were “misuses of militarized weapons.”

“The way federal agents used pepper balls here can cause significant and serious harm,” it continued.

Although the incident left Soqui feeling “shaken and upset,” according to the lawsuit, he still returned the following day to continue reporting and was struck again with multiple crowd-control munitions.

Soqui did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. While his experiences were detailed in the LA Press Club’s lawsuit, he is not listed as a plaintiff.

In a statement emailed to the Tracker, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin urged journalists to be cautious while covering what she characterized as “violent riots,” and added, “President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring law and order in Los Angeles.”