TV photographer shot with crowd-control munitions at Illinois protest

Jeff Freeman, a photojournalist for WLS-TV, was shot with pepper balls while reporting on protests outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview, Illinois, on Sept. 27, 2025.

Broadview Mayor Katrina Thompson sent a letter to the Department of Homeland Security following the aggressive response to protests the previous day, Block Club Chicago reported, accusing ICE officials of “making war” on her community. Thompson asked that the agency stop “deploying chemical arms such as tear gas, pepper spray, etc. against American citizens, our residents, and our first responders.”

According to a Sept. 27 news release, the village of Broadview said that in retaliation for Thompson’s letter, “ICE agents this morning informed the Broadview Police Department that there will be ‘a sh*t show’ in Broadview today.”

“Let’s be clear. ICE is seeking to intimidate the Village of Broadview because we dared exercise our 1st Amendment constitutional rights calling for an end to their war on Broadview,” the statement continued. “We will not be intimidated.”

A WLS-TV news crew was among the journalists covering the protests when federal officers delivered on their warning.

“Well, this was the most intense escalation between protesters and federal agents that we’ve seen at this Broadview ICE facility since it opened up,” journalist Maher Kawash reported. “Protesters were up there on that metal fence, doing their thing, chanting. Some of them were tapping on that fence when suddenly it opened up. Guards said something to the protesters before tossing out several canisters of tear gas.

“That is when they ran down the street, all of the protesters as the guards followed them,” Kawash continued. He added that the officers continued to shoot pepper balls at the retreating crowd, some of which hit Freeman.

Freeman did not respond to a request for comment.

ICE did not respond to requests for comment, but U.S. Border Patrol Commander-at-Large Gregory Bovino posted a video package of the Sept. 27 protest response on the social platform X two days later, set to Duckwrth and Shaboozey’s song “Start a Riot.”

“Wave your signs, chant your slogans, hurl your verbal insults, and exercise your First Amendment rights— we’ll protect that,” Bovino wrote. “Lay a finger on our agents, impede our mission, endanger those in our custody and we have a front row seat for you to our justice system.”