A 21-year-old college student who was blinded in one eye by a projectile fired by a federal officer during a protest in Southern California said he faces a very different life now.
Kaden Rumler said in an interview that he was in excruciating pain and underwent extensive, six-hour surgery on his left eye after he was injured in a Jan. 9 protest on… Fatal shooting of a woman By an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minneapolis. Rumler said he has no depth perception and can no longer drive. His lawyer said metal fragments and a nickel-sized piece of plastic were still stuck in his skull, and he was considering filing a lawsuit.
“It will affect every aspect of my life,” said Rumler, who hopes to pursue a career in forestry.
A second demonstrator at the same protest outside the federal immigration building in Orange County told… Los Angeles Times He was also blinded in one eye by a projectile fired by federal agents. Britannia Rodriguez, 31, said he was standing on the steps outside the immigration building when he was hit in the face.
“I remember hitting the ground and feeling like my eyes had exploded in my head,” Rodriguez told the newspaper.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about the type of projectile used. Tricia McLaughlin, the agency’s assistant secretary, said in an email statement this week that the protesters were violent and that two officers were injured, but she did not specify the extent of their injuries. The Department of Homeland Security said one protester was taken to hospital with an injury. McLaughlin confirmed to The Times that was a reference to Rumler and called his injury claims “ridiculous.”
Rumler was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct. One of his fellow protesters was jailed for several days and charged with assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a federal officer.
John Washington, Rumler’s attorney, said doctors want to know if the material in the projectile was toxic, but have been unable to get answers from the Department of Homeland Security. Washington said, based on its initial investigation, it believed it was a metal and plastic capsule that contained pepper spray.
The infections in California are the latest in a growing number of violent confrontations between federal agents and community members during protests against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
Federal immigration agents deployed in Minneapolis used aggressive crowd control tactics that became an overriding concern after the events of September The fatal shooting of Renee Goode.
In Santa Ana, California, hundreds of people marched in the streets on January 9 to protest Judd’s killing. A smaller group later gathered outside the federal immigration building, shouting obscenities over loudspeakers about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to video It was captured by OC Hawk, a group that films breaking news in Orange County.
The video shows a handful of riot officers standing guard over protesters, urging them to retreat. An orange cone is later seen rolling onto a plaza outside the building, and authorities begin firing crowd control projectiles as they walk toward the crowd.
In the video, an officer is seen grabbing a protester by the arm, and Rummler and a few others are seen running forward, screaming in response. An officer then fired a crowd control weapon, striking Rumler from several feet away. The video shows Rumler grabbing his face and falling to the ground, and an officer grabs him by his shirt and drags him back across the ground toward the building. Later, a video clip emerged of him lying on the ground, handcuffed.
Rumler said he joined the protest against immigration authorities because he could not bear to see families torn from their homes. Despite his injury, he said he would do it again.
“I refuse to sit idly by and watch this happen, and in 50 years, I will absolutely regret not trying to make a difference,” he said.
Washington, the civil rights attorney, said his client could have been killed.
“Any officer who has only had basic training will know that you don’t ever shoot anyone that way, let alone shoot at close range, and that’s because it’s a lethal weapon when used that way, and it was about to be,” Washington said.
Jeffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said a thorough investigation is needed into why a high level of force was used in this situation.
“I don’t know of any projectile in which I trained to shoot at close range,” Albert said.