Protester in California Permanently Blinded After Being Shot by DHS Agent at Close Range, Family Claims

A 21-year-old protester was left permanently blind in one eye after a Department of Homeland Security agent fired a nonlethal round at close range during a protest in Santa Ana, California, last week, according to the victim's family.

Jeri Rees said her nephew underwent six hours of surgery after being struck in the face outside the Santa Ana federal building. Doctors found shards of plastic, glass and metal embedded around his eyes and face, including a metal fragment lodged about 7 millimeters from a carotid artery.

Rees told the Los Angeles Times that doctors opted not to remove that fragment because of the risk it posed. "That could have cost him his life," she said. Medical staff later told the family he had permanently lost vision in his left eye and suffered fractures around his eyes and nose. Rees said the agent who fired the weapon was only a few feet away.

Videos posted to social media show DHS agents confronting demonstrators who had gathered to protest the fatal shooting in Minnesota of Renee Good, a mother of three killed by an ICE agent days earlier. Also last week, two people were shot and wounded by Border Patrol agents in Portland during a vehicle stop, which DHS also described as self-defense.

DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the LA Times in an email that a "mob of 60 rioters" threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at officers, injuring two agents and leading to arrests in Santa Ana, while local police said the only violence they were aware of involved protesters throwing orange safety cones. DHS declined to answer questions about use-of-force protocols.

A law enforcement use-of-force expert, Ed Obayashi, told the news site that aiming nonlethal projectiles at the face can constitute deadly force. "All the training manuals and cases say you don't aim at the face," he said, adding he did not see evidence that officers faced imminent danger.

The Santa Ana incident unfolded amid nationwide protests following Good's killing. According to NPR, at least 1,000 demonstrations were planned across the country over the weekend, with crowds in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Portland and other cities calling for accountability and an end to aggressive immigration enforcement.

DHS said it was deploying "hundreds more" federal agents to Minneapolis on Tuesday, warning that interference with ICE operations could lead to arrests.