An 18-year-old USC freshman who went downtown to photograph a No Kings rally in Los Angeles ended the night in an operating room, with surgeons removing one of his eyes after what his attorney says was a government-fired projectile hit him in the face.
The student, identified by his lawyer as Tucker Collins, was near the federal Metropolitan Detention Center last Saturday when he was struck in the eye by what his attorney describes as a less-lethal round fired by a Department of Homeland Security agent. Collins received initial treatment at the scene, aided by a passing nurse, before being taken to a hospital. His attorney says he plans to file a federal civil-rights lawsuit over the injury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, attorney V. James DeSimone said Collins was hit in the eye with a projectile that appeared to contain chemical irritants during the March 28 demonstration and was later given an eye patch at the Metropolitan Detention Center. DeSimone, whose firm has represented numerous people allegedly injured by federal agents at protests, characterized the shooting as targeted and said he intends to bring a federal civil-rights suit on Collins' behalf. "We’ve unfortunately seen in other instances where law enforcement has targeted the press with violence," he told the paper.
Federal Court Limits On Crowd-Control Munitions
Collins' case is unfolding against a legal backdrop that already restricts how federal agents may use crowd-control weapons. Federal judges have issued injunctions limiting when the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies can deploy tear gas, pepper-ball rounds, and similar less-lethal projectiles, and they forbid shots to the head, neck, or torso except when deadly force is justified, according to a recent court order. The district court’s opinion is available in the public docket; see the court's order for details. Those rules could loom large in any civil-rights claim filed on Collins’ behalf.
A Pattern Of Serious Injuries
Collins’ injury comes amid a run of similar complaints about so-called less-lethal rounds causing life-altering harm at demonstrations in Southern California. The Los Angeles Times previously reported on a legal claim alleging that a protester lost sight in one eye after being struck at a late-January demonstration near the same federal detention complex. Civil-rights lawyers say those cases, along with subsequent court rulings, are part of a broader push to tighten when and how these munitions can be used.
What Comes Next
DeSimone said he plans to file a federal civil-rights lawsuit seeking to hold the responsible officers and agencies accountable. Cases like this typically turn on video and medical evidence and on whether officers followed court-ordered limits or their own agency policies.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment, and investigators or lawyers have not yet publicly said which specific agency's weapon struck Collins. For journalists covering protests and residents who attend them, attorneys say Collins’ case is likely to become a closely watched test of how far courts are willing to go on enforcement, policy, and accountability when protest policing turns violent.
