Reporter struck in head with munition by federal officers at LA protest

Ryanne Mena, a reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, was shot in the head with a crowd-control munition by federal officers while documenting anti-deportation protests in Compton, California, on June 7, 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.

Demonstrations the following day were centered around a Home Depot in Paramount, a predominantly Latino suburb of Los Angeles, after Border Patrol agents were spotted nearby, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Mena told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she arrived at approximately 3:30 p.m. and began interviewing a few individuals who had been injured by Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies, who had fired crowd-control munitions at the crowd.

“Then 4:30 p.m. rolls by and I’m like, ‘OK, things are relatively mellow. I think I’m going to get ready to head out,” she said. “Then I see three to four dozen federal officers emerge from this warehouse area across the street from the Home Depot that was raided earlier in the morning.”

Mena noted that there weren’t many protesters around and she hadn’t observed any antagonistic behavior from the protesters, but officers began firing crowd-control munitions at the crowd without issuing a warning, sending her and independent journalist Sean Beckner-Carmitchel running for safety.

“We’re kind of just trying to find a place to go where we won’t get hit, but we didn’t have a lot of time,” Mena told the Tracker. “So they began shooting at the crowd and I think we were both shot in the head at almost the exact same time: I’m hit with a rubber ball bullet to my head an inch above my right ear.”

She added that the munition hit the thick edge of her baseball cap, which may have lessened the impact.

Beckner-Carmitchel was struck in the forehead with some type of canister, he told the Tracker. The journalists were almost immediately surrounded by tear gas, Mena said, which was particularly debilitating because she has asthma.

“I just kind of grab Sean’s arm and he leads us around the corner so we can get away from all the tear gas and the firing,” she told the Tracker. “And then we wash our eyes out and document each other’s injuries.”

She said that she was wearing two press credentials — one issued by her news outlet and one by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. “It was very clear I was there working as a journalist.”

Mena, who had also been shot with a pepper ball by federal officers the previous day, said that she got a severe headache later that day and threw up that evening. She ultimately went to an urgent care center two days later and was diagnosed with a concussion.

In a statement emailed to the Tracker, Department of Homeland Security 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.”

Multiple journalists were assaulted while covering the demonstrations in Compton and Paramount that night.

Mena told the Tracker that she had been cleared by her newsroom to go back out to cover protests June 12, and her willingness to cover demonstrations and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids was in no way diminished.

“This is not going to turn me at all from this coverage,” she said. “It’s motivating me to go even harder with my reporting, because it is so important what’s going on and they’re not going to silence the press.”