&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Cop 'directly aimed at me': American photojournalist shot on forehead with rubber bullet during LA protest recalls frightful moment")
A New York Post photojournalist Toby Canham was shot in the forehead with a rubber bullet by police during the ongoing immigration protests in Los Angeles.
“I’m just standing there working, and then all of a sudden … I mean, I was sort of semi-conscious of the fact that the guy was aiming at me or aiming in my direction, and that thing traveled so quickly. Next thing I knew, I was just flattened, it struck me on the head and I was down,” he was quoted saying to CNN on Tuesday.
The rubber bullet left a huge red mark on his forehead that was still visible on Tuesday. He went to the hospital afterward but wasn’t otherwise injured, he said.
“The initial response from law enforcement, you know, there was no standoff. It was almost like straight into it with the tools at their disposal to hold people back,” he said. “And there are obviously people in that crowd angry, lashing out at police, and objects being thrown and stuff like that," he added.
Watch the video here:
Earlier, an Australian journalist was shot at with a rubber bullet while she was covering the anti-ICE protest in Los Angeles. A video circulated on social media showed the journalist and 9News reporter, Lauren Tomasi, was at the site of the protest and reporting about the ground situation when she was hit by a bullet on her leg on camera on Sunday (June 8).
In the viral clip, Tomasi can be heard saying that "after hours of standing off, this situation has now rapidly deteriorated, the LAPD moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of LA".
“You just f***ing shot the reporter!” a bystander was heard yelling in the video.
