An Australian journalist was shot with a rubber bullet in Los Angeles today while reporting on protests against US President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Lauren Tomasi, the US correspondent of Australian news service 9News, was shot in the leg by an officer from the Los Angeles Police Department. Video footage showed the police officer seemingly aiming at Tomasi and shooting her in the leg. As she cried out, a voice off camera shouted, “You just fucking shot the reporter.”
U.S. Correspondent Lauren Tomasi has been caught in the crossfire as the LAPD fired rubber bullets at protesters in the heart of Los Angeles. #9News
— 9News Australia (@9NewsAUS) June 9, 2025
LATEST: https://t.co/l5w7JxixxB pic.twitter.com/nvQ7m9TGLj
In a report, 9News said Tomasi had been in Los Angeles’s downtown district at the time and that “one of the officers turned his gun towards Tomasi and fired at her from close range”. Tomasi was “left sore but otherwise unharmed”.
The website’s publisher, Nine Network, issued a statement saying: “This incident serves as a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests, underscoring the importance of their role in providing vital information.”
Tomasi was reporting on the third day of protests in the city following a series of “coordinated immigration raids” conducted by the US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Homeland Security, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. According to Al Jazeera, subsequent arrests were carried out without judicial warrants. The LAPD did not participate in the raids.
On Sunday, a British journalist had also been shot by a non-lethal bullet in Los Angeles while reporting on the protests. As reported by the BBC, photographer Nick Stern had to have “emergency surgery” after being hit by what was described as a three-inch plastic bullet that “tore into his thigh”.
The White House had issued a statement yesterday accusing California’s “feckless Democrat leaders” of having “abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens”. It insisted the raids were “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States”. The statement said Trump had signed a presidential memorandum “deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester”.
As per data from ICE (uploaded here on Dataful), 370 Indians were deported from the United States in 2023. It rose dramatically to 1,529 in 2024. According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs, from January to March this year, 388 Indian nationals were deported – 333 directly from the US and 55 through Panama.
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