Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- September 30, 2025
- Assailant
- Law enforcement
- Was the journalist targeted?
- Yes
Assault
Bystanders assist journalist L. Vural Elibol, chief videographer for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, as he lies on the floor after being shoved by federal officers while covering detentions in New York City’s immigration court on Sept. 30, 2025.
ICE officer states Turkish journalist ‘tripped’ in September 2025 assault
A federal officer said in a May 12, 2026, sworn affidavit that L. Vural Elibol, chief videographer for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, “tripped” in a September incident in which the journalist was knocked to the ground and later hospitalized at a federal immigration court in New York, New York.
Footage captured by a journalist at the scene on Sept. 30, 2025, showed federal officers pulling amNewYork’s Dean Moses out of an elevator and shoving freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova to the floor and onto Elibol.
Joseph Harrington, a supervisory detention and deportation officer for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was responding to an April 2026 amended complaint in a lawsuit alleging that ICE had obstructed observation efforts at the federal courthouse starting in mid-2025. He asserted that a reporter — likely referring to Moses, though he is not named — followed officers into the elevator as they escorted a detainee for further screening and processing, alleging that the reporter interfered with the arrest and resisted the officers.
“As the reporter was being escorted out of the elevator, an unknown journalist tripped on another individual and fell,” Harrington wrote, adding, “This incident was the result of the journalists’ interference with ICE officers performing their duties.”
Neither the amended complaint nor the affidavit named Elibol, but identifiable details such as a head injury and hospitalization point to him being the reporter who “tripped.”
The officer’s account of the incident was disputed by at least one eyewitness that was present at the scene that day. Peter Melck Kuttel, detention coordinator for Father Fabian Arias’ Saint Peter’s Church, told amNewYork: “It’s not like he tripped. You don’t hear that crack of a head for someone who trips.” A cracking noise can be heard when Elibol falls to the ground in the video footage.
Former City Comptroller and congressional candidate Brad Lander, who was arrested in June 2025 by ICE at the courthouse, characterized Harrington’s statements as perjury.
“To lie so blatantly, to the court to put your name on a legal document and lie when there’s video and witnesses who all saw the truth,” Lander told amNewYork, adding, “it’s perjury, and I really believe it should be prosecuted.”
Elibol did not respond to a request for comment.
L. Vural Elibol, chief videographer for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, was knocked to the ground by federal officers while reporting at the immigration court in New York, New York, on Sept. 30, 2025. He struck his head and was later hospitalized.
Multiple journalists have reported access issues, intimidation and threats when covering the court at Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have been arresting asylum-seekers following their hearings there since May, part of President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.
Previously, on Sept. 18, independent journalist Michael Nigro was assaulted by a man he identified as a plainclothes ICE officer while reporting on a lawmaker-led protest at the court.
Footage of the Sept. 30 incident, captured by a fellow journalist, shows masked federal officers pulling amNewYork’s Dean Moses out of a public elevator while shouting at him, “Get out of the fucking elevator!”
Another officer standing outside the elevator doors can be seen shoving freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova back, causing her to go crashing to the hallway floor, landing atop Elibol.
Elibol is then seen on the floor in pain before emergency medical services arrive, place him in a neck brace and onto a stretcher. The photojournalist, who did not respond to a request for comment, told Reuters, “I was trying to get the video and someone yanked me and threw me to the ground.”
A photographer for the wire service captured the moment Elibol started falling backward, showing multiple federal officers standing in front of Elibol and looking toward the elevator.
Elibol said that he hurt his back and head and was taken to the hospital. He added that after he was examined, he was discharged with pain medicine.
Neither ICE nor the Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment.
City Comptroller Brad Lander quickly condemned the assault, writing on the social platform X, “Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher.
“Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”
The National Press Photographers Association condemned the assaults as “a blatant attack on press freedom.”
“ICE must be held accountable for violating its own policy and for trampling on the First Amendment rights of these photographers,” said NPPA General Counsel Mickey Osterreicher. “Anything less sends a chilling message to journalists everywhere.”
Editor’s Note: This article was updated to include additional details from L. Vural Elibol and comment from the National Press Photographers Association.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
