A young protester narrowly avoided being killed but was left permanently blind after a Department of Homeland Security agent fired a nonlethal round at close range during a Santa Ana protest last week, according to family of the victim.
Jeri Rees said her 21-year-old nephew, Kaden Rummler, underwent six hours of surgery and that doctors found shards of plastic, glass and metal embedded in his eyes and around his face, including a metal piece lodged 7 millimeters from a carotid artery.
“That could have cost him his life,” Rees said.
“But now, for the next six weeks, he can’t sneeze or cough because it could do a lot of damage.”
She said doctors did not want to remove the shrapnel near the artery out of fear that it could kill him. She said her nephew also suffered a fractured skull around his eyes and nose and that doctors said he had permanently lost the vision in his left eye. She said the Homeland Security agent was a few feet from her nephew when he fired the weapon.
Several videos of Friday’s incident were shared on social media. One video shows demonstrators, who were protesting the fatal shooting in Minnesota of Renee Good, throwing orange safety cones at the agents, who were standing guard outside the Santa Ana federal building.
The video cuts to three agents approaching the group before one agent tries to take a young person into custody, prompting at least three demonstrators to try to intervene. The person taken into custody was identified by friends as Skye Jones.
In the video, at least one agent appears to fire nonlethal rounds at the crowd, hitting one woman in the leg before aiming and striking Rummler’s face.
The video shows Rummler dropping to the ground after being shot, holding his face as the crowd retreats. The same agent then drags him by the hood of their jacket; they appear to be choking, grasping at the jacket binding their neck as blood pours from their left eye.
Another video shows Rummler inside the building, lying on the ground bleeding while agents fire what appear to be pepper balls at the back of the head and neck of a man trying to record the incident with his cellphone.
Rees said her nephew told her that the agents pressed his face against the pool of blood and did not immediately call paramedics.
“The other officers were mocking him, saying, ‘You’re going to lose your eye,’” she said, recalling what her nephew told her.
Friday’s violent clash occurred just two days after a federal immigration agent fatally shot Good, a Minnesota mother of three. The slaying sparked public outcry, nationwide protests and scrutiny of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who said the agent was acting in self-defense.
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