An 18-year-old USC freshman who was filming a downtown Los Angeles protest in March has lost his right eye after being struck by a projectile, his lawyer says. Attorney V. James DeSimone says Tucker Collins was documenting a standoff between demonstrators and federal agents near the Metropolitan Detention Center during the March 28 "No Kings" protest when a crowd-control round hit him in the face, the New York Times reports. Surgeons spent about two and a half hours trying to save the eye, DeSimone said, but it ultimately had to be removed. DeSimone says the so-called "less-lethal" projectile "destroy[ed] his eyeball and fractur[ed] the bones in his eye socket," CNN reports. The lawyer points out a federal injunction prevents authorities from firing such rounds at people's heads, the Guardian reports.
DeSimone alleges a Department of Homeland Security officer fired the munition—possibly a pepper ball—and says fragments were recovered from Collins' eye, though DHS has not confirmed that account and the Times could not independently verify who fired the shot or what type of round was used. Video from a bystander shows Collins, in a red T-shirt, standing behind a fence line with his camera raised before suddenly collapsing. DHS says officers responded only after issuing multiple warnings to what it described as rioters throwing rocks, bottles, and cement blocks at federal officers. Collins, an astronautical engineering major with a cinematic arts minor, plans to continue his studies and pursue photography, and intends to sue the federal government.
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