The protests and clashes with police broke out in California in response to immigration raids
Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was struck by a rubber bullet while covering immigration riots in Los Angeles, she and her employer confirmed.
The incident occurred on Sunday as Tomasi, a correspondent for 9News Australia, was wrapping up a live report near the city’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where riot police were facing off with demonstrators.
A police officer standing behind Tomasi suddenly fired a projectile, which hit her in the leg. “I’m a bit sore, but I’m okay,” Tomasi wrote on X after the incident.
“This is just one of the unfortunate realities of reporting on these kinds of incidents. It has been a really volatile day on the streets of Los Angeles,” she told 9News.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that “journalists should be able to do their work safely.”
The protests and riots began on Friday after immigration officials detained several day laborers in the parking lot of a Home Depot store in Los Angeles’ Westlake District. President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard in response, a move California Governor Gavin Newsom rejected as unlawful.
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