Overview
- A 21-year-old says he was struck in the face at close range by a so‑called less‑lethal round outside Santa Ana’s federal building on Jan. 9, leaving him permanently blind in his left eye.
- Family and medical accounts report six hours of surgery, embedded plastic, glass and metal fragments, a skull fracture, and a metal shard lodged millimeters from a carotid artery.
- Video from the scene shows the injured protester bleeding as an officer drags him by his hood, with clips capturing the sound of projectiles and accounts noting a thrown traffic cone before shots were fired.
- DHS said roughly 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks, reported two injured officers, and announced two arrests on charges including assault on a federal officer and disorderly conduct.
- A policing legal adviser told reporters that firing impact munitions at a person’s face from only a few feet away meets the legal threshold for deadly force.