Photojournalist struck in helmet by crowd-control munition at LA protest

Freelance photojournalist Michael Nigro was shot by police with a crowd-control munition, which ricocheted off his helmet, while documenting anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles, California, on June 9, 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.

Nigro told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker he was filing photos for the agency Sipa USA when documenting the June 9 protests, which centered around the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA’s Little Tokyo neighborhood.

He said he was standing alone photographing from a pedestrian walkway near the Los Angeles Mall when he was suddenly shot at by law enforcement.

“I was just taking a wide-angle shot and there were already flash bangs going off, and all of a sudden, by my head, three hits happened and I fled that scene,” Nigro said. “But I’m just thinking, ‘Wow, somebody’s either a really bad shot or a very good shot,’ because it was so close. I just felt, ‘Man, they’re targeting journalists.’”

Approximately 1 ½ hours later, after the demonstration had been pushed down South Alameda Street and deeper into Little Tokyo, Nigro said he was photographing the line of Los Angeles Police Department officers advancing on the crowd when he felt something strike his helmet.

“I don’t know which officer it was, but it just hit me in the head and I just turned away and kind of moved out of the scrum,” Nigro said, noting that he wasn’t sure what kind of crowd-control munition had struck him. “After that, I went to my one colleague and I said, ‘I just got stung.’ And he just said, ‘Oh yeah, you did. There’s the mark.’ So we took a photo of it right away.”

Nigro told the Tracker that the helmet he was wearing — which had “PRESS” in all caps on both sides — “did its job” and the munition ricocheted without injuring him. He was also wearing a protective vest that was similarly marked.

“These moments are when I feel that chilling effect that they want to put on journalists,” he added. “It felt intentional, simply because at that close range and with the sights that they have. One inch down and it would have gotten me right in the forehead.”

When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the Tracker to its social media accounts. But in a June 10 news release posted on social platform X about the previous evening’s protest response, the department did not address the use of munitions against identifiable press.