Nick Stern, a British news photographer based in Los Angeles, is set to undergo emergency surgery for a wound sustained during the standoff between police and anti-Ice protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday.
I put my hand down and felt a lump kind of sticking out the back of my leg,” he said.
Stern believes he was likely hit my a non-lethal round that deputies were using along with flash-bang stun grenades for crowd control.
But the blood made me think it was a live round.” Stern is currently at the trauma center at Long Beach Memorial awaiting surgery.
“They gave the impression from what they were chanting that it was their town and they didn’t want Ice there.”
Due to a wound he received during Saturday’s police-anti-Ice protest standoff in Los Angeles, Nick Stern, a British news photographer based there, will require emergency surgery.
Stern told the Guardian he was reporting on the demonstration outside a Home Depot location in Paramount, where day laborers are usually hired from abroad, when he suddenly experienced a sharp pain in his leg.
“I was unattended until about nine o’clock at night while I was out and about taking pictures. A sharp pain shot through my leg as I was crossing the street. He remarked, “I put my hand down and felt a lump sort of sticking out the back of my leg.”.
In addition to flash-bang stun grenades used by deputies to control crowds, Stern thinks he was probably struck by a non-lethal round.
“I was taken to the curb by people who came over to help. After a medic was called, my clothes were cut off. There seemed to be a five-centimeter hole in my leg, with blood running down it and muscle protruding from it. I was taken to the emergency room by a journalist after the medic applied a tourniquet. “”.
He remarked, “I thought they might be firing live rounds because it hurt so much.”. “I’ve previously encountered non-lethal rounds. Although they hurt a lot, they usually don’t cause skin damage. However, I believed it to be a live round because of the blood. “”.
Stern is presently awaiting surgery at Long Beach Memorial’s trauma center. According to a physician who examined his X-rays, the size of his wound suggested that a non-lethal round had struck him.
The protest prompted the deployment of over 100 deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Sheriff Robert Luna said that the crowd had grown to between 350 and 400 people and that some of the demonstrators were hurling objects at law enforcement and federal agents, indicating that the situation had turned violent.
Police used munitions, including tear gas, during the demonstration.
“Anybody has the right to peacefully assemble and exercise their first amendment rights, but when that goes too far and you start attacking people, using violence, or destroying property, that’s when we as a department have to step in, warn people, and people may get arrested,” Luna stated.
“The deputies will defend themselves.”. Nobody expects our deputy sheriffs to take bottles and rocks without defending themselves, in my opinion. “.”.
Stern claimed that the demonstrators were yelling “Ice out of LA!” and seemed “very angry.”.
“Paramount has a sizable Hispanic population,” Stern stated. Based on their chanting, it appeared that they didn’t want Ice in their town. “.”.
