Homeland Security officers who blinded a young protester by shooting a less-lethal projectile at close range in Santa Ana apparently shot a second man in the face that night, blinding him too.
Britain Rodriguez, 31, a resident of Orange County, said he was standing at the bottom of some steps with other demonstrators when federal officers above opened fire at them, hitting him in the face.
"I remember hitting the ground and feeling like my eye exploded in my head," he said.
In a video his girlfriend shared with The Times, Rodriguez can be seen on the ground, holding his face as he screams in agony before demonstrators escorted him from the area.
"I can't see, I got shot in the eye, I can't see," Rodriguez says before noticing blood on his hand. "I'm bleeding."
Rodriguez and his girlfriend, Ale, who declined to give her last name, said the officers gave no warning before firing at them. She said she was hit in the chest with a less-lethal round but was not injured.
"That's when I started yelling at them," she said. "I'm like holding a sign that says 'Stop kidnapping my neighbors' and a candle; I am no threat to any of [those] guys."
She said after getting shot she heard her boyfriend screaming.
The video suggests Rodriguez was struck at the same time that 21-year-old Kaden Rummler was hit in the face. Rodriguez can be heard screaming in the background just as Rummler falls to the ground.
In astatement released by Rummler this weekand read by a member of the social justice organization Dare to Struggle, which organized one of the protests that day, he said doctors found pieces of plastic and glass in his skull as well as metal in his stomach lining, and pulled a piece of plastic "the size of a nickel" from his injured eye.
Rummler said a piece of metal got lodged millimeters from his carotid artery, and doctors were unable to remove some of the shrapnel from his skull.
He said the DHS officers did not call paramedics right away and at one point pushed his face into a pool of his own blood.
Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary with the Department of Homeland Security, played down the injury and denied the allegations in statements to The Times this week.
"This is absurd," she wrote. "DHS law enforcement took this rioter to the hospital for a cut and he was released that night."
McLaughlin said "a mob of about 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement officers." She said two officers were injured but did not say how or what their injuries were. She said two people were arrested and charged with assault on a federal officer and disorderly conduct.
"This was a highly coordinated campaign of violence where rioters wielded shields," she said. "Make no mistake, rioting and assaulting law enforcement is not only dangerous but a crime."
Videos of Friday's incident shared on social media do not reflect McLaughlin's version of events.
In Santa Ana, hundreds gathered that night to protestthe killing of Renee Good,a Minnesota mother of three, and the Trump Administration's mass deportations. Some were there to speak out against police brutality as well. Protesters marched in the downtown area chanting "ICE out of O.C." and held up signs that read "No more raids, keep families together" and "Stop the deportations."
An earlier protest started at 3 p.m. and was organized by Dare to Struggle, according to Connor Atwood, a member of the group. Atwood, who was present, said the scene turned chaotic as the protest began to wind down and the crowd dwindled.
One video showsdemonstrators throwing orange traffic cones at the federal officers, who were standing guard outside the entrance to the Santa Ana federal building.
Rodriguez, his girlfriend and other demonstrators said the cones never came close to hitting the officers. They said there were no bottles or rocks thrown and they saw no one holding shields.
A spokesperson for the Santa Ana Police Department said the only physical confrontation by protesters they were aware of that night was the tossing of orange cones at the federal officers.
The video cuts to three DHS officers approaching the group before one tries to take a young person — identified by friends as Skye Jones — into custody, prompting at least three demonstrators to try to intervene. As one officer struggles to apprehend Jones, two others fire less-lethal rounds at the crowd, hitting one woman in the leg and Rummler in the face.
The video shows Rummler dropping to the ground, holding his face as the crowd retreats. An officer then drags him by the hood of his jacket. Rummler appears to be choking, grasping at the jacket around his neck as blood pours from his left eye.
The clash outside of the federal building is part of a number of controversialconfrontations that sparked nationwide protests and raised concernsabout the use ofviolence by federal immigration agents.
Santa Ana Mayor Pro Tem Benjamin Vazquez said he was troubled by what took place outside of the federal building on Jan. 9 and called the federal officers' actions "deplorable."
"Shooting any kind of projectile into somebody's face could lead to death," he said.
Vazquez said it appears the agents did not try to de-escalate the situation or attempt to go inside the building where it would have been safer.
"The building is a fortress, it's got thick concrete walls," he said. "It's clearly built to take on a simple signs, water bottles, even rubber cones."
"There was no need for them to come out of the building," he added. "The violence doesn't match the protests."
Sitting on his living room couch this week, Rodriguez said doctors told him the projectile that hit him in his eye damaged his iris, cornea and lens. He developed a cataract too.
On a small table, sealed in a Ziploc bag, were pieces of the projectile he suspects he may have been hit with. The pieces appear to be part of a round plastic pellet that was filled with a pinkish powder.
Rodriguez doesn't know how much of his vision, if any, he'll be able to get back. He said doctors told him he'll require surgery to remove the cataract before they can determine that. He said he's been unable to work or drive.
Rodriguez works at an after-school program in Orange County and supervises third graders. He said he drives a school van to drop students at their homes or stops, but now he may not be able to do that.
The injury has altered his life as a working artist, making it difficult to read, write and paint. He said distinguishing some colors on the palette has been challenging.
"The first day when I tried to paint was frustrating," he said. " "I couldn't distinguish between brown and purple for a little bit."
Rodriguez said he's gone through a mix of emotions since the shooting. He hopes he'll get to thank the man who provided medical care to him before his girlfriend drove him to the hospital. He feels sad that Rummler lost vision in his left eye too. And he's angry that people are being harmed and their constitutional rights are being violated by federal authorities.
"All of America should be outraged right now, you know, we should all be very upset at minimum," he said. "Because as far as I'm concerned, I was doing something legitimate and for a legitimate reason, you know, like a civilian was murdered by somebody who seemingly cannot get prosecuted and more than likely won't get prosecuted, which is why I was out there."
"When I heal up, I'm gonna be back out there, protesting against this because this makes me sick, this is not the country that I want to live in."
Times staff writer Itzel Luna contributed to this report.
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This story originally appeared inLos Angeles Times.
