Incident details
- Date of incident
- June 7, 2025
- Location
- Paramount, California
- Targets
- Anthony Cabassa (Independent)
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- No
Assault
Law enforcement at an immigration protest in Compton, California, on June 7, 2025. Reporter Anthony Cabassa was struck with a projectile while covering a demonstration in the adjacent Los Angeles suburb of Paramount.
Independent journalist Anthony Cabassa was hit in the left hand with a crowd-control munition fired by law enforcement while covering a protest against immigration raids in Paramount, California, on June 7, 2025.
It was one of many protests that began that week in response to federal raids in and around Los Angeles of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.
The June 7 demonstrations 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.
Cabassa told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was covering the protest when a person behind him threw a glass bottle at law enforcement. Cabassa, who is a disabled veteran, said his disability prevented him from moving fast enough to get away when an officer fired back with a projectile.
“I put my hand up to my face to protect it, and the officer ended up getting the side of my hand,” he said. Cabassa suffered internal bleeding near his pinkie and sought treatment at a local hospital.
The journalist, who was wearing a press badge, said the officer did apologize to him and told him he did not mean to fire the projectile at him. He wasn’t sure which law enforcement agency he was from.
“It seems like more and more journalists are having to put on so much protective equipment just to cover the news,” Cabassa added.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
