Anti-ICE protester blinded by federal agent during demonstration in Santa Ana, family says

LOS ANGELES — A young protester narrowly avoided being killed but was left permanently blind after a Department of Homeland Security agent fired a nonlethal round at close range during a Santa Ana protest last week, according to family of the victim.

Jeri Rees said her 21-year-old nephew underwent six hours of surgery and that doctors found shards of plastic, glass and metal embedded in his eyes and around his face, including a metal piece lodged 7 mm from a carotid artery.

“That could have cost him his life,” Rees said. “But now, for the next six weeks, he can’t sneeze or cough because it could do a lot of damage.”

She said doctors did not want to remove the shrapnel near the artery out of fear that it could kill him. She said her nephew, who is transitioning and goes by the pronoun he, also suffered a fractured skull around his eyes and nose and that doctors said he had permanently lost the vision in his left eye. She said the DHS agent was a few feet from her nephew when he fired the weapon.

Several videos of Friday’s incident were shared on social media. One video shows demonstrators, who were protesting the fatal shooting in Minnesota of Renee Good, throwing orange safety cones at the agents, who were standing guard outside of the Santa Ana federal building.

The video cuts to three agents approaching the group before one agent tries to take a young person into custody, prompting at least three demonstrators to try to intervene. The person taken into custody was identified by friends as Skye Jones.

In the video, at least one agent appears to fire nonlethal rounds at the crowd, hitting one woman in the leg before aiming and striking the victim in the face.

The video shows the victim dropping to the ground after being shot, holding their face as the crowd retreats. The same agent then drags the victim by the hood of their jacket; they appear to be choking, grasping at the jacket binding their neck as blood pours from their left eye.

Another video shows the victim inside the building, lying on the ground bleeding while agents fire what appear to be pepper balls at the back of the head and neck of a man trying to record the incident with his cellphone.

Rees said her nephew told her that the agents pressed his face against the pool of blood and did not immediately call paramedics.

“The other officers were mocking him, saying, ‘You’re going to lose your eye,’” she said, recalling what her nephew told her.

Friday’s violent clash occurred just two days after a federal immigration agent fatally shot Good, a Minnesota mother of three. The slaying sparked public outcry, nationwide protests and scrutiny of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the agent was acting in self-defense.

Friday’s incident is the latest in a number of confrontations around the country in which agents have used deadly or what experts say is excessive force.

“This constitutes as deadly force as far as the law is concerned,” said Ed Obayashi of the video. The Modoc County sheriff’s deputy and legal advisor to police agencies, who has testified in similar cases, said that “all the training manuals and [legal] cases say you don’t aim at the face because these projectiles can cause serious injury [or] death.”

Obayashi said, based on law enforcement use-of-force standards, an officer can deploy deadly force if they feel their life is in imminent danger, or that they are in danger of great bodily harm.

“I just don’t see that here,” he said.

In downtown Santa Ana, hundreds had gathered that Friday night to protest the killing of Good and the Trump administration’s mass deportations. Some were there to speak out against police brutality as well. Protesters marched around the downtown area, chanting “ICE out of O.C.” and holding signs that read “No more raids, keep families together.”

An earlier protest started at 3 p.m. and was organized by the social justice organization Dare to Struggle, said member Connor Atwood. Some members later reconvened just before 6:30 p.m. for a demonstration outside the federal building put together by another organization, he said.

Atwood, who was present during the incident, said the scene turned chaotic as the protest began to wind down and the crowd dwindled. A group of protesters are seen in video standing near a staircase away from the building’s entrance.

Department of Homeland Security agents stepped out of the building various times throughout the night, firing nonlethal rounds toward protesters, Atwood said.

Protesters had not attempted to get closer or breach the entrance of the building, Atwood said.

A portion of the crowd eventually dispersed, but leaders of Dare to Struggle encouraged some protesters to stand their ground to “say we’re not going to be intimidated away from expressing what we feel right now and delivering our message,” Atwood said.

Some protesters then began burning an American flag. At some point after 8:30 p.m., Skye Jones, a leader of Dare to Struggle’s Orange County chapter, was arrested, Atwood said. Another protester, who has only been identified by the initial K and is a supporter of the organization, was then hit in the eye.

“It wasn’t just completely out of nowhere, but it was very sudden,” Atwood said, adding that agents “had come out of the building several times before that, but they had not tried to arrest anyone or grab anyone.”

In an email response to The Times, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security, said a “mob of 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement officers outside of the federal building.”

“Two officers were injured. Two violent rioters were arrested and were charged with assault on federal officers and disorderly conduct,” she wrote. “This was a highly coordinated campaign of violence where rioters wielded shields.”

McLaughlin did not response to questions about protocols agents must follow when using less-lethal devices.

A spokesperson for the Santa Ana Police Department said the only violence they were aware of that night were demonstrators tossing orange cones at the agents.

Atwood said he didn’t witness bottles or rocks being thrown toward agents. Some firecrackers were set off near the sidewalk but away from the building entrance, he said.

Both DHS agents and Santa Ana police were seen standing outside the federal building just after 10:30 p.m., according to video footage reviewed by The Times. Fire paramedics can be seen taking Rees’ nephew in a gurney.

Atwood said Jones had an initial hearing Monday. Rees said Jones had been released and was at the hospital with her nephew as of Monday night.

Atwood said a news conference is scheduled for 10 a.m. Tuesday outside of Santa Ana City Hall to provide more details about Friday’s incident. The group is also raising money through GoFundMe to help with the protester’s medical expenses.