Student photojournalist Griffin O’Rourke was struck in the knees with crowd-control munitions fired by federal agents while covering a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on Jan. 30, 2026.
The demonstration was part of nationwide protests that began that day and also followed similar protests in Minnesota, where federal officers have shot and killed two U.S. citizens. In LA, sweeping immigration enforcement has continued since June.
O’Rourke, photo editor for the Daily Sundial at California State University Northridge, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was photographing demonstrators outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA, where immigrants were being held.
As protesters began pushing a metal dumpster toward the entrance of a parking garage, Department of Homeland Security officers fired a barrage of crowd-control munitions into the area. O’Rourke said he took cover behind the dumpster. When he stepped out to get a better photo, he was struck in the legs with pepper balls, which he identified by the residue they left behind.
O’Rourke said he was wearing a helmet labeled “press” and a visible media badge, but could not tell whether he was targeted or not when he was hit.
“The pain was pretty intense,” said O’Rourke, whose legs were bruised from the impact. “It felt like my knees were buckling, so I had to go sit down for a few minutes.”
Moments later, O’Rourke was engulfed in tear gas that seeped behind his goggles. The chemical irritant temporarily incapacitated him until somebody helped him wash it from his eyes.
“I was practically blind from the tear gas,” he told the Tracker.
Later, as Los Angeles Police Department officers pushed demonstrators away from the federal building, police told O’Rourke to move and then shoved him.
“They were just more frustrated that I was in the way, then targeting me as the press,” he said.
The actions of both DHS and the LAPD on Jan. 30 appeared to violate California law prohibiting law enforcement from using violent protest policing tactics with members of the press, which courts reinforced with preliminary injunctions issued to both agencies last year.
Requests for comment by both agencies were not immediately returned. In a social media post on X the evening of the protest, the LAPD said it used crowd-control munitions in response to violence against officers, but it did not address the use of force against journalists.
In a Jan. 31 post on his social media platform, President Donald Trump wrote that federal agents would participate in policing protests only if requested, but that he had instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol “to be very forceful in this protection of Federal Government Property.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.