Protesters recount bloody attack by Homeland Security agents in Santa Ana
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A young protester gripped at the collar of his shirt, a desperate attempt to keep his airway clear as a Department of Homeland Security agent dragged him into a federal building in Santa Ana on Friday, according to a statement he released to a social justice organization.The protester, a 21-year-old Kaden Rummler, had been hit by a less-lethal round fired by an agent only feet away.He said he saw his blood pooling beneath him — “dark and thick,” and wider than his head.Rummler pleaded with agents to call an ambulance, he said in the statement.
Instead, the agents taunted him, “laughing at the fact that I would never get to see out of my left eye again,” he said.Rue El Amar, a friend of Rummler, read the statement on his behalf during a news conference Tuesday, held by Dare to Struggle, a social justice organization that Rummler’s involved with, in front of the Santa Ana city jail.Demonstrators had gathered in front of federal offices in Santa Ana on Friday to protest the fatal shooting last week of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Minnesota.Rummler was injured and another protester, Skye Jones, was taken into custody.Video footage of the incident shows three agents approaching the group before one agent tries to take Jones into custody, prompting at least three demonstrators to try to intervene.The video then shows at least one agent firing less-lethal rounds at the crowd, before aiming and shooting Rummler in the face, who drops to the ground, holding his face as the crowd retreats.
Rummler remained in the hospital as of Tuesday afternoon, as they await a police report that can identify what type of metal was in the rounds used.His doctors are concerned about neurotoxins from the bullet, he said.
“I pleaded with him, call an ambulance,” El Amar read.“I thought I was going to bleed out on the floor of the federal building with ...