Photojournalist hit in the arm with projectile shot by LAPD

Independent photojournalist Ron Haviv was shot in the arm by a Los Angeles Police Department officer on June 14, 2025, while documenting a protest for The New Republic.

Haviv, the co-founder of documentary producer VII Foundation, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker via email that he was in downtown Los Angeles to photograph a “No Kings” rally, one of more than 2,000 held across the country to protest the actions of President Donald Trump and his administration, and planned to coincide with a military parade held in Washington, D.C., and Trump’s birthday.

The rally also followed days of protests in Los Angeles and nearby towns against recent federal raids, part of the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown.

After the protest ended, Haviv said, he witnessed confrontations around City Hall and the Metropolitan Detention Center between protesters and law enforcement, which included LAPD and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officers, with LAPD officers attempting to push protesters off the streets.

Haviv was close to the police line, not near any protesters and “not much was happening on either side,” he said, when he was hit in the arm by a 40 mm crowd-control projectile shot by an LAPD officer — the first time, he said, that he’s been shot or shot at by U.S. law enforcement while working.

Haviv was wearing press credentials, he said, but didn’t know if he had been targeted as a journalist. None of his equipment was damaged, but he had to seek medical help for the injury, which weeks after the incident was still bruised and in the process of healing.

He said he is considering his legal options.

Haviv noted that the protesters were mostly peaceful and that law enforcement’s response therefore seemed disproportionate. “The combination of horses, tear gas and rubber bullets seemed to be a higher amount than necessary for what was happening on the ground,” he said.