British photographer, 60, shot by police at LA protests [View all]

Last edited Mon Jun 9, 2025, 12:36 AM - Edit history (1)

Source: The Times (UK)

A British photographer has undergone surgery after being shot by police while covering the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

Nick Stern was hit with what doctors believe was a 14mm high-velocity “sponge bullet” that tore into his thigh while he was taking pictures of a stand-off between protesters and law enforcement on Saturday evening.

“I had a press ID round my neck, a large camera, a video camera … I was making a point of making myself visible as media,” he told The Times.

-snip-

With blood pouring from his leg, medics tied a tourniquet and piled on dressings. At the hospital, he underwent scans and X-rays. “The doctor came in and said, ‘There’s something in your leg, we’re not sure what it is.’ I said, ‘Is it shrapnel?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s about 40mm wide and 60mm long’, and I said ‘Ah … I know exactly what that is now’ and I explained and the doctor [said], ‘Yeah, that’s it’.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/nick-stern-shot-la-riots-british-photographer-ftk9sh22x

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Important note: The word "riots" was used ONLY in the headline, not in the story, or by the photographer, Nick Stern, as far as I can tell. Misleading headline.
Note on the note above, added 8 hours after posting this story. The word "riots" in the original headline was changed to "protests" sometime before reply 40 was posted, so I'm correcting "British photographer, 60, shot by police at LA riots" to "British photographer, 60, shot by police at LA protests" - and the original link using the word "riots" still works.

Stern had taken photos of two women waving a Mexican flag, their backs to him as they stood facing a line of sheriff's deputies down the street. He had turned and was walking away from the women and deputies when he was shot.

He said that from what he'd seen earlier, he felt what the police were doing with flash-bangs, rubber bullets, pepper bullets and sponge rounds "was indiscriminate targeting of everybody who’s at the protests."