Nick Stern

SHOT IN THE LEG BY A COWARD

Location: Downtown LA, June protests
Date: June 9, 2025
Injuring Agency: Believed to be LA County Sheriff’s Department
Weapon: “Sponge-tipped” “less-lethal” round
Status of Officer: Unidentified. Uncharged. Unbothered.
Agency Response: No official comment.
Medical Status: Required emergency surgery to remove the projectile. Still recovering.

Nick Stern was doing what photojournalists do best—capturing the soul of a moment, documenting reality with the calm precision of someone who’s seen it all. War zones. Riots. Political unrest. And yet, it was Los Angeles—not Kabul, not Kyiv, not Kandahar—that nearly tore his leg open and left him in an operating room.

He was walking along the protest route, lens in hand, clearly marked as press, when the shot rang out. One second he was standing. The next, he collapsed. A “non-lethal” munition—a term that deserves to be laughed out of every public safety manual—ripped into the back of his leg.

“I felt a mighty pain in my leg,” Stern later told The Guardian. “I put my hand down and felt a lump sticking out.”

The projectile had lodged itself so deep it had to be surgically removed. Emergency surgery. For doing his job.

This wasn’t a ricochet. This wasn’t an accident. It was another state-sanctioned assault on a journalist, and the only reason we know about it is because Nick lived to tell the tale. And still, no badge number. No arrest. No accountability.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who were active in the area that day, have remained silent. No statement. No investigation announced. It’s like shooting a journalist in the leg was a forgettable afternoon—filed away under “miscellaneous paperwork” and iced coffee runs.

You cannot accidentally snipe a man’s leg out from under him with a sponge round unless your training manual was written in crayon. And yet, here we are:

• The round wasn’t supposed to be aimed at limbs.

• The officer wasn’t supposed to shoot at press.

• And the department wasn’t supposed to ignore a man being carted into surgery because of their trigger-happy tactics.

But nothing about this is “supposed to.” It’s all deliberate—and we’re supposed to forget it.

Nick Stern hasn’t forgotten. His leg won’t let him.

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