Photojournalist KingDemetrius Pendleton was shot in the foot with a crowd-control munition round fired by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer while covering a protest outside a federal building near Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Jan. 9, 2026.
Protests erupted after the fatal shooting Jan. 7 of Renee Good in her car by an ICE officer, amid a federal immigration enforcement surge in the state.
Pendleton, the founder of Listen Media, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he was documenting a protest taking place in front of the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling, bordering Minneapolis, where the area’s ICE operations are based.
Pendleton, who posted a video of the incident and its aftermath on Facebook, said he was photographing and taking video of protesters, as well as of several pro-ICE, pro-Trump administration counterprotesters.
“I was wearing my press credentials, including my PRESS black vest, and holding my cameras and live streaming on my phone with my tripod,” he wrote on Facebook.
He went on to write that ICE officers were telling protesters to back up as they were bringing in barricades. “I was following their directives and backing up when an ICE agent targeted me and hit me in my right foot with a canister round.”
“I was doing exactly what I was told to do. I was visibly identifiable as press. And still, I was shot,” Pendleton wrote.
He wrote that he was rushed to the emergency room by another person at the protest because he was in a lot of pain. “Thankfully, nothing is broken,” he said, adding that he was told the injury would take four to six weeks to heal.
Pendleton told the Tracker that his tripod was also broken in the incident. He said he dropped everything when his foot was hit, due to the pain, and that he was saved from further injury by the sturdy work boots he was wearing.
“Journalists shouldn’t have to worry about being shot at while doing their job. This is another reason why protecting local, independent media is so important,” he wrote on Facebook.
ICE did not respond to a request for comment.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.
U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database | Radio Free (2026-01-16T16:34:50+00:00) Photojournalist covering Minnesota ICE protest hit with crowd-control projectile. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/01/16/photojournalist-covering-minnesota-ice-protest-hit-with-crowd-control-projectile/
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