SANTA ANA, Calif. â A demonstrator was hit in the face with a projectile fired by a federal officer at close range during a Southern California protest, leaving him bloodied and with serious injuries, according to video and accounts from fellow protesters and a family member.
The Jan. 9 gathering outside the federal immigration building in Santa Ana was in response to a federal agent's killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis on Jan. 7, which kicked off protests around the United States.
After hundreds of people marched in Santa Ana's streets, a smaller group outside the federal building shouted expletives through megaphones about Immigration and Customs Enforcement, video showed. At one point, they burned what appeared to be an American flag on the steps of the building while shouting "Justice for Renee Good."
The demonstrators came up onto the plaza, where a handful of agents stood in riot gear and held crowd-control gear. At one point, officials forcefully moved a demonstrator back down onto the steps, and the group continued to chant as the agents appeared to urge them to move back. Later, an orange cone rolled up onto the plaza, and officers began firing munitions as they walked toward the crowd. It is not clear if the cones were thrown or by whom.
The injured demonstrator, identified as 21-year-old Kaden Rummler by his aunt, can be seen on video shouting through a megaphone along with others outside the building, where several officers were stationed in riot gear. The officers approached the crowd then grabbed another demonstrator by the arm, identified in a federal criminal complaint as Katelyn Skye Seitz, pulling them onto the steps.
In response, Rummler and a few other demonstrators stepped forward shouting. One of the officers fired a crowd-control weapon, striking Rummler from several feet away. Rummler grabbed his face and fell to the ground. An officer grabbed Rummler by the shirt and dragged him backward across the ground, the video shows. His face was bloody and other demonstrators shouted "leave him alone." Officers took Rummler into the federal building, and later video appears to show him face down on the ground being handcuffed.
Video of the incident was taken by OC Hawk, which films breaking news in Orange County.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security, called the group violent rioters and said two officers were injured. Two protesters were arrested and charged with assault on a federal officer and disorderly conduct, she said. She did not respond to questions about the nature of the officers' injuries or the injury of the protester.
Protester says he lost sight in his left eye
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn't answer questions about what type of projectiles were fired, but another protester said they were pepper balls.
Rummler was hit in his left eye and suffered skull fractures, according to his aunt Jeri Rees. "He's completely blind" in that eye, she said. "There's a hole in his eyeball."
Rees said her nephew, a college student, was in the hospital for two days and underwent six hours of surgery to his left eye.
She said he was released from the hospital Tuesday while doctors work to determine what the fragments are made of to assess whether additional procedures are needed to remove them.Â
Rees said her nephew was given a citation for disorderly conduct.
In a statement read by another protester Tuesday, Rummler said he felt ringing and pressure around his skull and was dragged toward the building bleeding while struggling to breathe.
"I will never see through my left eye again, not even light," he said in the statement. "I'm just glad I'm alive to tell my story."
It was not immediately possible to independently confirm details of the injuries. The fellow protesters, from the group Dare to Struggle, declined to say what hospital he was taken to.
Seitz, one of the arrested protesters, said the group was there to "rightly protest the brutal execution of Renee Good, and the government agencies that uphold ICE's ongoing brutality." Seitz identified themselves at the news conference as Skye Jones.
A federal complaint alleges Seitz failed to leave the property despite warnings and threw an orange cone at officers, then resisted arrest and struck an officer on the shoulder and in the groin. Details weren't immediately available about the second set of charges filed, and the U.S. Attorney's Office didn't immediately respond to questions about them.
Additional video shows demonstrators still gathered and shouting at agents after the confrontation broke out. Some officers stood at the door to the building, and another demonstrator approached. Officers can be heard firing more rounds. The protester walked back toward the group covered in a white powder. He appeared to have a cut on his face, and other demonstrators called for a medic.
