Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 9, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- Anna Moltke (Independent)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Unknown
Assault
Law enforcement at an immigration protest in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025. Photographer Anna Moltke was hit in the head with an impact projectile while covering the protest.
Independent photojournalist Anna Moltke was shot in the helmet with an impact projectile while covering a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 2025.
The protest was part of a wave of demonstrations that began June 6, following federal immigration raids across the LA area amid a larger immigration crackdown by the Trump administration. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump deployed the California National Guard and U.S. Marines, despite objections from state and local officials.
Moltke told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that a rubber pellet fired by an LA Police Department officer struck her helmet, which was clearly labeled as press.
Moltke said the impact felt as if someone threw “a large lemon at my head with force.” After she was hit, she saw the rubber pellet hit the floor. She was also affected by chemical irritants deployed that day.
When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to the department’s social media accounts. In a statement posted to the social platform X, the department said it used crowd-control munitions to respond to “protest and criminal activity.” It did not address its use of the projectiles against members of the press.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
