MARINA DEL REY, Calif. — Los Angeles photojournalist Nicholas Stern has filed a civil rights lawsuit alleging he was “unjustifiably shot with a less-lethal projectile” while documenting an anti-ICE protest in Compton last June and then “denied medical assistance by deputies despite a visible, severe injury,” according to a press release issued on behalf of civil rights attorney V. James DeSimone.
The release states that Stern is filing his lawsuit against “the County of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert G. Luna, and unnamed sheriff’s deputies and supervisors” after he was shot at the June 7, 2025, anti-ICE protest. The lawsuit was filed Feb. 18, 2026, in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
Stern was “struck by a 40mm less-lethal projectile that embedded in his right thigh, leaving him with a gaping pocket of torn, destroyed tissue that bled profusely,” as described in the release.
The release states the 60-year-old Stern “was documenting anti-ICE demonstrations and exercising his First Amendment rights, when Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies fired so-called less-lethal munitions toward a group that included Stern and other peaceful demonstrators,” even though “Stern and those nearest him posed no threat to deputies or anyone else.”
Additionally, the release notes that Stern, whose work has appeared in “major news publications including Time Magazine, Newsweek, ABC, NBC, CNN, the Guardian and The New York Times,” was clearly identified as a member of the press and “many times during that day he raised his press identification and camera over his head so deputies and officers could see he was doing his job and posed no threat.”
DeSimone stated that “this was no accident… these deputies intentionally violated Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department policies and an injunction when they shot an explosive device directly into a crowd and directly at a working photojournalist,” according to the release.
Due to “the gaping wound” in Stern’s leg, he “required emergency surgery that night, and… has since endured months of intensive wound care, including negative-pressure wound therapy and a wound vacuum.” The release notes that as a result, Stern’s wife “was forced to become his caregiver and perform complex wound care at home.”
Stern also required “specialized treatment to close the deep wound includ[ing] chemocautery and debridement procedures,” after which it finally “closed after about two months, but later reopened.” The release states that he was “left unable to work while healing… through at least late October 2025.”
According to the release, Stern now “suffers from PTSD as a result of the severe emotional distress and psychological trauma resulting from the shooting… with anxiety, recurrent flashbacks and nightmares multiple times per week.”
Before the injury, the release states that “Stern had spent about six hours documenting last summer’s ICE protests in Compton, Calif. About 9 p.m. he was standing on the south side of Alondra Boulevard, a few yards away from men chanting and waving Mexican flags. He was shooting photographs and video of protesters across the street who were hunkered down behind a makeshift barricade.”
The group Stern was closest to was “not posing any threat to deputies, not throwing anything at them, nor destroying or defacing any property.” Despite this, the release recounts that “deputies shot so-called ‘less-lethal’ projectiles at the group, ‘risking serious injury or death to individuals exercising their rights under the First Amendment.’”
After deputies made this decision, “Stern was hit by the hard plastic casing of a 40-millimeter explosive round fired in his direction. As he tried to escape, he felt additional projectiles striking him, which are believed to have been pepper balls or foam-tipped projectiles,” according to the release.
Immediately after being struck, protesters came to Stern’s aid and “carried him to the curb [where] he passed out due to the pain,” and within minutes, “a street medic arrived… cut his pant leg, and bandaged the wound.” The release states that the complaint alleges “at no time did any LASD deputy provide medical assistance,” even though Stern had a “visible and severe injury.”
The release recounts DeSimone’s statement that “this kind of indiscriminate use of force is precisely why there is an injunction against using these devices on peaceful protesters who pose no threat of physical harm… Nick held a camera, and the others on his side of the street were waving flags and chanting. The deputies didn’t care whether these people were peacefully exercising their constitutional rights.”
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