An anti-ICE demonstration in Southern California took a harrowing turn when a protester reportedly lost his sight after being hit by a projectile at close range.
Twenty-one-year-old college student Kaden Rummler asserts that the confrontation with ICE agents has left him permanently blind in his left eye.
“I’m just grateful to be alive so I can share my experience,” Rummler told the Associated Press.
The protest, which occurred last Friday in Santa Ana—approximately 35 miles from Los Angeles—was captured on video. It featured demonstrators shouting expletives against ICE, with some setting fire to what appeared to be a U.S. flag, demanding “Justice for Renee Good.”
When Rummler intervened as a fellow protester was being seized by a federal agent, another officer fired a crowd-control device at him, causing him to collapse in pain.
Photos from the hospital reveal Rummler’s left eye, severely bruised and swollen, bearing the marks of the incident.
‘I was told that my tear duct was destroyed,’ he added in a statement to KTLA. ‘My lower eyelid was so messed up that they needed to take skin from my temples to repair it.
‘My eye had sunk in, the globe ruptured and flaps of my eye [were] barely holding on.’
Kaden Rummler, 21, said he was left blind in one eye after being hit by a short–distance projectile during an anti–ICE protest in Santa Ana, California
Video captured from the demonstration also showed a bloodied Rummler being dragged backwards across the ground by an officer
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) told the Daily Mail that, ‘a mob of about 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement officers outside the federal building in Santa Ana’.
Two officers were injured and two demonstrators were arrested and charged with assault on a federal officer and disorderly conduct, per the DHS.
The DHS also told the Daily Mail that the protest was a ‘a highly coordinated campaign of violence where rioters wielded shields’.
‘One of the rioters, who was arrested for disorderly conduct, was taken to the hospital for a cut and was released that night,’ the department added.
The video – captured by OC HAWK on Instagram – also caught a bloodied Rummler being dragged across the ground by an officer.
Subsequent footage seemed to show him the anti–ICE protester down on the ground and being handcuffed.
Rummler’s aunt, Jeri Rees, said that he required a two–day hospitalization and a six–hour surgery to his left eye.
‘There’s a hole in his eyeball,’ Rees claimed.
Rummer claimed that his tear duct was destroyed, his eye had sunk in and the flaps were ‘barely holding on’
Rummler also suffered skull fractures, according to his aunt. His injuries have not been independently verified.
She added that her nephew was issued a citation for disorderly conduct following Friday’s protest.
The DHS has not disclosed what projectiles were fired at protesters during the demonstration in Santa Ana, according to the AP.
Rummler was with the Southern California chapter of the Dare to Struggle group at the protest.
The organization says it is, ‘open to anyone who wants to resist and stop injustice no matter who holds political office’.
‘We know that radical change only happens when people step outside of routine protest or expecting politicians to do it for us and take bold, collective action,’ the group’s mission statement reads.
The DHS told the Daily Mail: ‘Make no mistake rioting and assaulting law enforcement is not only dangerous but a crime.’
‘Secretary Noem has been clear,’ the department added. ‘Any rioter who obstructs or assaults law enforcement will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.’
Rummer was released from the hospital on Wednesday. A new picture released of the anti–ICE protester showed that his eye remained massively swollen
Members of the Southern California chapter of Dare to Struggle took turns speaking during a press conference in Santa Ana about Rummler
Rummler was released from the hospital on Wednesday, according to a GoFundMe posted on behalf of a friend.
The fundraiser – which called Rummler a ‘young protester’ – said that he was ‘was shot in the eye at point–blank range by a federal agent’.
It claimed that Rummler was subsequently ‘denied medical care by the Feds and dragged into the federal building’.
Another anti–ICE demonstrator, Katelyn Skye Seitz, said Dare to Struggle was there to, ‘rightly protest the brutal execution of Renee Good, and the government agencies that uphold ICE’s ongoing brutality’.
A federal complaint alleged that Seitz did not leave the protest’s property despite warnings and also threw an orange cone at officers.
She then allegedly resisted arrest and hit an officer on the shoulder and in the groin.
Friday’s protest in Southern California was one of many across the country protesting the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis by ICE agent Jonathan Ross on January 7.
The Daily Mail has reached out to the Southern California chapter of Dare to Struggle for further comment.
