Reporter struck with impact projectiles while covering Oregon protest

Agostinho Da Silva, a reporter for Oregon’s Lane Community College student newspaper, The Torch, was repeatedly struck with crowd-control munitions while covering a protest in front of the Federal Building in Eugene on Jan. 27, 2026.

Demonstrators had gathered outside the building that day to protest federal immigration enforcement activities and to hold a vigil for Alex Pretti, the Minneapolis resident who was killed by Border Patrol agents in Minnesota three days earlier, The Torch reported.

Department of Homeland Security officers responded by firing chemical irritants and crowd-control munitions at the crowd and by detaining protesters.

Da Silva told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to the Federal Building that day to document the actions of the DHS officers. At around 7 p.m., he said, officers “exited the building with an escalation of force, this time using flash bangs and indiscriminate pepper ball shots.”

“As I was backing away with the rest of the press gaggle, myself and other reporters next to me had our cameras in one hand and were holding out our press passes in the other hand, with myself and a few others yelling ‘Press, we’re press,’” Da Silva told the Tracker.

“It was then that a few agents raised their pepper ball guns directly at our center mass and started firing directly toward the group of reporters. I was hit three times in my chest, once on my right thigh, and once on each ankle,” he said.

In a video that he filmed of the incident for The Torch, Da Silva can be heard identifying himself as press as officers advance, before reacting in pain to being hit.

Da Silva told independent journalist Kevin Foster that he was in a group with other members of the press, and that other reporters were hit as well. “We’re all standing together, fully marked, and they’re targeting us in particular,” he said, adding that he was wearing a gas mask but that his eyes were stung by the chemical irritants fired by the officers.

Da Silva told the Tracker that six days after the incident, it was still a bit difficult to walk on his right leg without pain. “But it has not deterred me from continuing to report at the Federal Building when there are protests occurring.”

DHS did not respond to a request for comment.