Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- June 8, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Targets
- Sergio Olmos (CalMatters)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- No
Assault
A Los Angeles Police Department officer fires a crowd-control munition near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA on June 8, 2025. CalMatters reporter Sergio Olmos was struck with a round while covering an immigration protest that day.
LAPD dismisses allegations officer hit reporter with crowd-control munition
The Los Angeles Police Department dismissed a complaint on June 8, 2026, over a 2025 incident in which a CalMatters reporter was shot in the chest with a crowd-control munition while covering a California protest.
Sergio Olmos, an investigative reporter for the nonprofit news organization, was reporting from an anti-immigration enforcement demonstration, wearing a press badge, in downtown LA on June 8, 2025, when he was hit.
The incident was submitted for review to the LAPD by Adam Rose, the LA Press Rights Club’s press chair and deputy director of advocacy at the Freedom of the Press Foundation, of which the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project.
A year after the incident, the department informed Rose that the investigation concluded allegations of the use of unauthorized force and failure to minimize the incidental impact of less-lethal munitions were “unfounded,” meaning that the department determined the incident “did not occur” as described.
The departmental letter, signed by Chief of Police Jim McDonnell and Captain Andre Rainey, provided no evidence to support its conclusion. Representatives for LAPD did not respond to questions on how they reached their determination.
Rose told the Tracker, “All too often, these reply letters say nothing about misconduct by officers but reveal a lot about bureaucratic incompetence at LAPD. Someone is sitting at a desk copy-pasting the same denial language even if it’s irrelevant.”
Olmos declined to comment for this story.
Sergio Olmos, an investigative reporter for CalMatters, was struck in the chest by a crowd-control munition fired by police officers while covering an immigration protest 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 LA 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.
Olmos told The Washington Post that he was wearing a press pass and shooting video of a protest a few blocks from a complex of federal buildings when Los Angeles Police Department officers shot crowd-control munitions at demonstrators.
In a video of the incident posted by the reporter on the social platform X, police can be seen firing into the crowd, and then the camera angle moves to the ground.
Olmos told the Post that he was hit with what he believed was a 40 mm sponge grenade. “I got hit in the chest and it’s a moment of, ‘What the f---?’” He said he put his camera down momentarily to check that he was OK.
In an interview in CalMatters, Olmos said that on the day he was hit, police fired more less-lethal rounds in a single day of protests than he’d ever seen.
“California law enforcements are trained not to shoot these less-lethal rounds at the head and neck area because they can cause severe injuries. And you’re not supposed to use them to disperse people. But the LAPD is using them to move crowds back, which goes against their training,” he added.
Olmos did not respond to a request for comment.
When reached for comment, the LAPD directed the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker to the department’s social media accounts, where statements and comments would be posted. The account does not appear to have posted any comment concerning Olmos’ assault.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
