Protesters face injuries at latest No Kings demonstration in LA

Last month, following a full day of No Kings protests, law enforcement in Los Angeles injured two teenagers to the point where they needed surgery following the incident.

Tucker Collins, an 18-year-old freshman at USC, was taking photographs of a protest outside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in downtown Los Angeles when Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers threw tear gas at the protesters and shot his eye with what his lawyer believes was a pepper bullet. He was treated by another protester then taken to a hospital where he underwent a two-and-a-half hour surgery to remove his eye.

“You can see by the video, he's in a place where no one's throwing anything,” said his lawyer, Jim DeSimone. “He's politely moving out of the way when people are walking by and without warning, a shot was taken at head level, hit him in the eye [and he] immediately went down, and his orbital bone was fractured. There's a penetrating wound.”

Later that night, Los Angeles Police Department officers arrived at the MDC when between four to six officers targeted 17-year-old Ivan Perez while breaking up a protest. One of the officers hit his leg with a baton at least twice, fracturing his shin, which also required surgery, said his lawyer Calvin Schneider. 

While police are trying to charge Perez with assault on a police officer, videos taken of the incident do not show an attack on officers. Although he was resisting being detained, Schneider said that is no reason to hit the minor with a baton.

“That is what they were protesting against, this excessive force,” said Schneider. “It's a possible reason that they are prosecuting him for assault on a police officer is because they need to justify using the baton to hit him in the leg and break his leg.”

Up until that evening, Frank Xuncax said that the No Kings protest was peaceful. 

“Everyone was vibing, everyone's dancing,” Xuncax said. “I recall there was a truck where there was this band playing, and they were all pretty much dancing to cumbias. Everyone was in solidarity. Everyone was tired of this administration. Everyone was just showing support for the community.”

Xuncax, who was documenting the protest, said that DHS escalated the events at MDC, where many No Kings protesters went around 5 p.m. He said that DHS threw tear gas and started shooting less lethal weapons at the crowd. He recalls Collins falling to the ground and seeing a lot of blood. 

“Everyone was just there to exercise their personal right to protest,” Xuncax said. “I recall a gentleman that was hit in his eye. I recall him falling on the floor. I recall him getting treated by another activist.”

Junior Rodriguez said that the escalation came after a protester threw a water bottle at the DHS officers.

“All that started over a water bottle, which is something I do not condone, but I don't think that it was grounds for us to get shot with pepper balls and start getting tear gassed,” Rodriguez said.

DeSimone agreed that DHS escalated that situation and should never have shot at head level.

“It seems here that the actions of the DHS in spraying, throwing tear gas, spraying chemical irritants of the crowd, they're provoking the crowd, and then you have people reacting by throwing things at times, but that does not give them any justification for shooting those weapons at head level,” DeSimone said. 

“The only way you can shoot at head level if that person was actually closing deadly force, i.e., they were going to kill someone unless you took them out with that less lethal projectile,” DeSimone added.

A DHS spokesperson said that the officers took “appropriate and constitutional measures” that day. LAPD did not reply to a request for comment at the time of publication. 

DeSimone said that Collins is going to be blinded in his eye for the rest of his life. He also said that he represents 15 other people in the Los Angeles area who have been injured in protests by law enforcement, most of whom faced traumatic brain injuries.

Additionally, 17-year-old Perez, who is an organizer with Dare to Struggle Southern California and was brutalized later that night, is currently in a cast and using a walker.

“We don't know if he'll have a full recovery,” Schneider said. “We don't know if there'll be residuals yet or not.”

Schneider said the first step is to get charges against Perez dropped by proving that he did not assault a LAPD officer, then file a government claim for the personal injuries and the assault battery that was by the police officers.

There is a GoFundMe to help support Perez’s medical bills following the emergency surgery.

Rodriguez, who often attends protests as a medic to support people who are injured, said he helped five other people who were exposed to tear gas that day. He said it is an injustice that LAPD and DHS can get away with the harm.

“If we as civilians do the things that they do we will be in prison for years,” Rodriguez said. “So for them to get away with these types of things is very disturbing.”