A British news photographer required emergency surgery after being struck by non-lethal rounds while covering protests in Los Angeles.
Nick Stern was documenting a confrontation between anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters and police. The incident occurred outside a Home Depot in Paramount, a city within Los Angeles County and known as a location where day laborers are frequently hired, when a 14mm “sponge bullet” hit him in the thigh.
He told the PA news agency, “My initial concern was, were they firing live rounds?”
“Some of the protesters came and helped me, and they ended up carrying me, and I noticed that there was blood pouring down my leg.”
He received treatment from a medic who advised him to go to the hospital. Stern reported that he fainted from the pain at one point.
He is currently recovering at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centre after undergoing emergency surgery.
Stern, who moved to the US in 2007, stated that he typically makes himself “as visible as possible” when working in potentially dangerous situations.
“That way you’re less likely to get hit because they know you’re media,” he explained.
This isn’t the first time Stern has been injured. He said he sustained “substantial” bruising when he was hit by another projectile during the George Floyd protests in 2020.
“The communities in LA are very tight and very close-knit,” Stern commented.
“So an outside organisation like Ice coming in and removing – whatever you want to call it, removing, kidnapping, abducting people from the community – is not going to go down well at all.”
In a separate incident, Australian reporter Lauren Tomasi was also struck by a bullet while reporting for 9News.
U.S. Correspondent Lauren Tomasi has been caught in the crossfire as the LAPD fired rubber bullets at protesters in the heart of Los Angeles. #9News
LATEST: https://t.co/l5w7JxixxB pic.twitter.com/nvQ7m9TGLj
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 9, 2025
These incidents occurred after US president Donald Trump announced intentions to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to California to suppress the protests, which began in downtown LA on Friday and subsequently spread.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated that the action was “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States”.
The decision drew sharp criticism from Democratic politicians, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, who labeled the move “purposefully inflammatory.”
Demonstrators have been protesting the Trump administration’s immigration raids, which last month aimed to detain up to 3,000 people each day.
Despite his injury, Stern is eager to return to work.
“I intend, as soon as I am well enough, to get back out there,” he said.
“This is too important and it needs documenting.”
