Reporter hit by crowd-control munitions at Illinois protest, gear damaged

Independent journalist Wali Khan was shot with numerous crowd-control munitions by federal officers while covering protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 26, 2025. Almost all of his personal protective equipment was damaged in the targeted attack.

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 Operation Midway Blitz.

Khan told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that protesters had gathered outside a fence local officials said was illegally erected around the building by federal officers. Meanwhile, many journalists had gathered in an informal gaggle away from demonstrators, standing in a parking lot 10-20 yards from the facility, when officers opened fire with crowd-control munitions from the roof and multiple sides of the building.

“Me and a bunch of photographers were hiding behind a van and all of a sudden we heard this pop, pop, pop,” he said. “We noticed that there were DHS officers on the roof who were firing down onto protesters, sniping them with pepper balls, rubber bullets. Same with the ones by the fence; they were sticking their guns out, and they were shooting these protesters and reporters.”

Khan said he then felt two pepper balls strike his protective goggles.

“Everything turns white in front of me because of the powder. And then it cracks the goggles and gets into my eye,” he recounted. “I’m freaking out, and then they shoot me a few more times in the back and then in my mask, which also breaks it. So I couldn’t breathe and I collapsed.”

Khan received medical attention, repeatedly rinsing out his eyes while he sat on the ground. He said that when he realized the latch on his mask had broken, he prepared to leave. “I was like, ‘OK, this is stupid.”

Before he had the chance, however, officers began throwing stun grenades and firing 40 mm foam rounds.

“They threw flash bangs and my ears were ringing, then a foam round bounced off a window and hit me right in the head,” Khan told the Tracker. He added that the round broke his helmet, but “at least I had the helmet.”

Khan said he later realized that his camera’s flash and one of his lenses were broken when they were struck by pepper balls.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment. In a press release that day, the Department of Homeland Security described the demonstrators as “rioters,” some of whom were reportedly chanting “shoot ICE.”

“These violent threats and smears about ICE must stop,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. She also called on Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to “condemn these riots and tone down their rhetoric about ICE.”

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to DHS following the day’s events, Block Club Chicago reported, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”

According to a Sept. 27 news release, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”

Indeed, federal officers responded to protests with chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions that day — affecting multiple journalists, including Khan — and arrested at least one reporter.

“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”