An 18-year-old college student who attended a recent “No Kings” protest in downtown Los Angeles lost his right eye after being struck in the face by a less-lethal projectile allegedly fired by a Department of Homeland Security agent, his attorney told the Los Angeles Times.
Tucker Collins, a freshman at the University of Southern California, attended the March 28 gathering to photograph the event and was struck in the eye by a projectile that appeared to contain chemical irritants, his attorney, V. James DeSimone, told the Times.
“We’ve unfortunately seen in other instances where law enforcement has targeted the press with violence,” DeSimone told The Times. “Instead of targeting people who were throwing things into the crowd, they were targeting someone who was documenting and taking photos of the crowd.”
The DHS did not immediately respond to JS’s request for comment on the incident.
Doctors removed Collins’ right eye as a result of his injuries, per DeSimone. The teen reportedly did not feel well enough to be interviewed.
DeSimone told the Times he plans on filing a federal civil rights lawsuit on Collins’ behalf. He also noted that his law firm had represented at least 15 people allegedly injured by federal or local agents while attending demonstrations since last June.
“They’re able to protect themselves in many different ways,” DeSimone told the Times. “There was no imminent threat to those officers and it’s upsetting to see the level of violence. These less-lethal weapons are target specific and it’s not like they’re spraying it into the crowd and getting them to disperse. It’s against policy and against the law to use them for crowd dispersal.”
