The impact left a 2-inch hole in his leg and required emergency surgery to remove a 40mm projectile, according to media reports.
“It hurt so much that I thought they might be firing live rounds,” he told The Guardian. “I’ve been with non-lethal rounds before. They hurt like hell but generally don’t break the skin. But the blood made me think it was a live round.”
Another journalist, Lauren Tomasi of News9 Australia, was struck by a rubber bullet fired by a Los Angeles Police Department officer while she was broadcasting live during Sunday’s protest outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Downtown Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department told CalMatters in a statement that the department is reviewing footage of Stern’s injury and “it is not clear at this time whether our department was involved.”
The statement said the department is committed to ensuring members of the media “can perform their duties safely while covering events, including protests, civil disobedience and public gatherings.”
The statement added that the Tomasi incident “involved another law enforcement agency and not the Sheriff’s Department.”
A video posted on X by News9 Australia shows a uniformed LAPD officer taking aim and firing in the direction of Tomasi and her crew.
When asked for comment, an LAPD spokesperson directed CalMatters to a news release posted on the agency’s X account. It states that police fired more than 600 rounds of “less-than-lethal munitions” Saturday and Sunday while arresting 29 people.
The release states that the department will continue to review body-worn footage from the incidents, but makes no mention of the Tomasi case or other journalists who were struck.
News9 reported that the LAPD has launched a formal investigation into the Tomasi incident.
A subsequent release by the LAPD states that its Professional Standards Bureau “will be investigating allegations of excessive force,” but does not mention Tomasi or other media.
A history of problems
The hazards journalists face covering the news are not new. Throughout the years, dozens of journalists have been injured by police while covering disturbances in and around Los Angeles.
Rose, the LA Press Club’s journalists’ rights advocate, said he started compiling data on incidents after the violence during the 2020 LA George Floyd protests to try to determine whether there has been a pattern involving police encounters in which journalists are injured.
He said he believes a pattern does exist.
“There has been a long history of problematic dynamics between police and the press in Los Angeles,” he said, especially during incidents of unrest in which police “appear to clearly target journalists.”
He cited the 2007 “Mayday Melee,” in which LAPD officers tried to clear protesters at an immigration rally in MacArthur Park. More than 40 people were injured, including nine journalists, and the city paid out $13 million to settle excessive force claims.
Six years earlier, LAPD agreed to pay $60,000 to settle a case involving seven reporters who were injured by police covering disturbances surrounding the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
