Protester permanently blinded by federal agent's less-lethal round at Santa Ana ICE rally
Jan 15, 2026·Location: Santa Ana, CA

Kaden Rummler, 21, was permanently blinded in his left eye after a federal agent shot him in the face with a less-lethal crowd control weapon during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Santa Ana, California on January 9, 2026. Rummler was protesting ICE deportations and the death of Renee Good at the hands of an immigration agent in Minneapolis. The impact caused severe injuries: doctors removed plastic, glass, and metal fragments from his face and skull, found pieces of plastic and glass embedded in his skull, metal in his stomach lining, and a piece of plastic the size of a nickel in his injured eye. A piece of ammunition narrowly missed his carotid artery. Rummler underwent six-hour surgery to remove shrapnel from his injuries. Officers did not call paramedics immediately and at one point pushed his face into a pool of his own blood. Rummler was one of two protesters shot in the face that night. A protester lost an eye after being struck by a scattershot munition fired by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department during immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles. The case, Castellanos v. City of Los Angeles, resulted in litigation against local authorities under state negligence laws. PHR and UC Berkeley identified scattershot munitions as inherently indiscriminate weapons that make it impossible to prevent significant unintended harm, recommending they never be used for crowd control.
Sources
- Second man shares horrific story of being blinded by officers at anti-ICE rally in Santa Ana
Los Angeles Times·Jan 16, 2026·archived copy
- Un manifestante de California queda permanentemente ciego de un ojo, luego de que un agente federal le disparara con munición “menos letal” a quemarropa
- Sacramento Bee
- Demonstrator injured after federal agent fired projectile from close range during California protest - Wave News
- hardpass.lol
- Sacramento exonerated officer whose projectile blinded woman during 2020 protest
aol.com·Mar 21, 2024·archived copy
- A federal agent shot a pastor in the face with a chemical weapon. What can California do about it?
berkeleyside.org·Oct 30, 2025·archived copy
- Apply to Join
- Anti-ICE protester blinded by federal agent during demonstration in Santa Ana, family says
- DHS: US agents sustain eye injuries from lasers at protest, may be blinded
police1.com·Jul 24, 2020·archived copy
- Federal agents drag blind man at Portland ICE protests; court delays continue - The Daily Chronicle
chronline.com·Oct 22, 2025·archived copy
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