Demand for action after Australian journalist shot at LA protests
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being urged to seek an “urgent explanation” from the Trump administration after an Australian journalist was shot by police with a rubber bullet in Los Angeles.
Footage emerged Monday of Nine News journalist Lauren Tomasi being shot while covering street protests that have broken out in LA in response to the arrest of dozens of people for alleged immigration violations.
As Tomasi speaks to camera from the protests with the sound of sporadic gunfire, a police officer in the background can be seen taking aim and firing at the journalist.
Tomasi cries out in pain as she is hit directly in the leg.
“You just f—in’ shot the reporter!” a protester can be heard shouting at the officer before asking Tomasi if she was OK.
She replies: “Yeah, I’m good. I’m good.”
Tomasi later told a follower on X she was “safe and OK”.
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Greens spokesperson for media and communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young condemned the shooting, describing it as “simply shocking”.
“It is completely unacceptable and must be called out,” Hansen said.
“The Prime Minister must seek an urgent explanation from the US administration.”
Albanese has yet to speak publicly on the incident.
Trump ordered California National Guard troops to be deployed in Los Angeles. Photo: AAP
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles declined to comment on US immigration policy and deportations under President Donald Trump, but said he was glad to hear Tomasi was OK.
“At the end of the day, how America operates its own immigration system is really a matter for the United States, and how it manages its own internal law enforcement is a matter for the United States,” he told Sky News.
In a statement, Nine News said Tomasi and her camera operator would “continue their essential work covering these events”.
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“This incident serves as a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests, underscoring the importance of their role in providing vital information,” the network said.
Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Monday (local time) as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard in the city, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas and flash bangs – as well as rubber bullets – to control the crowd.
National Guard troops are guarding federal government buildings, as police and protesters clash in separate demonstrations over federal immigration raids in Los Angeles.
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Police have declared all of downtown LA an unlawful assembly area, ordering protesters to go home.
Tomasi is not the only journalist to be caught up in the LA protests.
Nick Stern, a British news photographer, reportedly needed emergency surgery after sustaining a leg wound during the clashes.
There were also reports of journalists being harassed by protestors.
Tomasi’s shooting is reminiscent of a 2020 incident when Channel Seven reporter Amelia Brace was shot by US police with non-lethal rounds and struck with a truncheon during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Brace and cameraman Tim Myers were in Washington DC’s Lafayette Square when officers began aggressively clearing the area ahead of a surprise appearance by Trump.
She later told US Congress she was shot in the legs and backside, and Myers was hit in the neck by non-lethal rounds from a police automatic weapon.
