- - Blood. Pain. Disorientation. Here’s what protesters say ‘less-lethal’ weapons feel like

Graham Hurley, CNNJanuary 20, 2026 at 6:00 PM

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Federal agents clash with residents and rapid responders as they deploy tear gas on January 13, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The scene took place two blocks from where Renée Good was fatally shot by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer earlier in January. - Joshua Lott/The Washington Post/Getty Images

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some of these images are graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.

Vincent Hawkins still has the megaphone he was holding when his face was mangled by a tear gas canister. Blood streamed down his face as he clutched his hand over his eye, shuffling in confusion. Moments later – for the first time in his life – the 25-year-old emergency room nurse found himself on the other side. He was the patient.

As waves of federal agents surge to several cities across the US, cracking down on what the Trump administration calls the “worst of the worst” illegal immigrants, a growing number of Americans are taking to the street to express their concerns over what they see as heavy-handed overreach. Those protests reached a fever pitch after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.

While tensions flare and protests build, so does widespread concern over what some say is the excessive use of crowd control tactics to quell and disperse demonstrators not just in Minnesota, but in Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland as well.

Law enforcement officers are typically trained to use force only when the crowd poses an imminent threat or is interfering with an officer’s official duties, according to CNN’s senior law enforcement analyst, Josh Campbell. Now the practice is drawing heightened scrutiny – particularly surrounding situations with small crowds and in residential neighborhoods. The effects of the crowd control devices commonly used by law enforcement are usually short-lived and temporary, but some can have a lasting, if not permanent, impact.

“I will never see through my left eye again, not even light,” said 21-year-old protester Kaden Rummler, in a statement to the . “I’m just glad I’m alive to tell my story.”

Rummler was maimed by a projectile fired by a federal officer at a recent protest in Santa Ana, California the AP reported.

Video shows him advancing toward agents, falling to the ground after being hit in the face by the object, then bleeding profusely as he is dragged away by an officer.

Kaden Rummler, who was injured after being hit with a projectile fired by a federal agent during a protest outside an immigration building in Santa Ana, California, poses for a portrait Wednesday, January 14, 2026, in Southern California. - Damian Dovarganes/AP

Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin described the group to CNN as “violent rioters” who were throwing rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement. She said two officers were injured in the altercation but declined CNN’s request to comment on the man’s injury. It is unclear whether any objects were thrown at law enforcement and by whom. Rummler is seen holding a megaphone throughout the incident.

Federal agents using what are known as “less-lethal” projectiles against unruly crowds is not a new tactic, nor has it always been controversial. What seems different here is how quickly law enforcement is resorting to using them. The Rev. David Black was one of the first faces to be associated with this trend.

While praying aloud at a protest in front of the Broadview ICE facility in Chicago last fall, one agent unleashed multiple rounds of pepper balls at Black’s face. Minutes later, he was inundated with pepper spray by a group of officers.

“I was drenched from the crown of my head to the socks in my shoes,” recalled Black at the time. “It was indiscriminate and it was vicious.”

Videos of the incident exploded on social media, drawing enough scrutiny that a lawsuit was filed, eventually prompting a federal judge to issue a temporary restraining order restricting federal agents in the Chicago area from firing various types of “less-lethal” projectiles and chemical irritants.

The order drew nationwide attention to Chicago, where immigration enforcement officers were recorded violating the order several times – including top Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino – which then prompted a judge to call an emergency hearing to discuss the violations. President Donald Trump, however, doubled down on his support of the agents’ use of force, saying, “they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.”

By law, the use of force by law enforcement officers must be reasonable to circumstances before them, according to Campbell.

Though all officers are trained to consider how such force can impact innocent bystanders, including factoring in whether residents in nearby homes might be impacted, “not all law enforcement agencies provide the same level of training to their personnel,” Campbell said.

“While large city police departments routinely provide their officers with robust training in crowd control, federal agencies like ICE, Border Patrol, US Marshals and the FBI typically do not provide their personnel with advanced training, because it is not a key part of their usual mission,” he added.

DHS officials did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for clarity on the agency’s use of force policy.

Below is a closer look at the types of less-lethal munitions used in these kinds of events, as well as accounts of what it feels like to be hit by one and their lasting physical – and mental – impacts.

Pepper balls and pepper spray

Pepper balls are a projectile fired from weapons that look like paintball guns, but the pellets marry the effects of a chemical irritant with the blunt force of a paintball.

A federal agent fires pepper balls at anti-ICE protesters at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on October 12, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. - Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images

A protester is shot with a paintball gun pepper ball outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on September 19, 2025, in Broadview, Illinois. - Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

Dr. Rohini Haar, a medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, explained that the pepper balls “cause a lot of pain from the physical injury, the blunt trauma, and if (the pepper ball) hits the eye or something, you’re really injecting this chemical toxin inside people’s bodies.”

The pellets are designed to burst open on impact and release a fine powder containing oleoresin capsicum, an oil-based compound derived from a variety of pepper plants, including cayenne and chili, giving their trademark spiciness.

Mason Lake, a photojournalist who has been exposed to various crowd-control tactics while covering protests in Portland, Oregon, said getting hit with pepper balls feels similar to being pelted with paintballs. The key difference, he says, is that pepper balls release an incredibly fine powder that can easily work its way into clothing, where it lingers and causes renewed irritation upon contact with the skin.

Pepper ball residue marks the street where police used chemical agents to disperse protesters marching against Immigration and Customs Enforcement on June 10, 2025, in Denver, Colorado. - Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

The back of a demonstrator is pockmarked with wounds after federal law enforcement agents opened fire with pepper balls while he was protesting outside of an immigration processing center on September 22, 2025, in Broadview, Illinois. - Scott Olson/Getty Images

Even in small towns, police use pepper balls and pepper spray to quell unruly crowds.

In Durango, Colorado, a small city in the southwest corner of the state, Ryan Garcia and dozens of other residents responded to the city’s ICE facility to protest an immigration enforcement operation. Tensions rose during this protest, and an officer unloaded several pepper balls all over Garcia’s body.

“I felt it in my leg, I felt it at my side. The one that got me was one that hit me in my elbow, and it just resonated up my entire arm. Three of my fingers were numb for, I don’t know how many days after,” Garcia said.

When those pepper balls were unleashed, one somehow made its way into Garcia’s backpack.

“One of them, like, exploded in my backpack, somehow, I didn’t realize that ‘til afterwards, when I was going through my bag … I opened it up, and then it started choking me out,” Garcia said.

One of Ryan Garcia's pepper ball injuries - Courtesy Ryan Garcia

Pepper spray works much the same as pepper balls. The spicy OC compound is incorporated into a liquid and manufactured into aerosol spray canisters for deployment.

Since DHS began its blitz in Minnesota, Emily Phillips has been a vocal protester of its actions across the state, including a November raid where agents deployed pepper spray.

Phillips was standing at the front of the crowd protesting when she was pepper sprayed by an officer from about three feet away.

“It affected my eyes, like, it’s oily, so it was coming out of my eyes for a couple days, because it was hard to actually clean all of the oil off, so every once in a while, for a couple days, my eyes would get a little bit spicy,” Phillips said.

Phillips’ eyes and body were immediately affected by the pepper spray.

“My whole body just burned for several hours. I burned until I went to bed that night. I remember waking up the next morning and (thinking), ‘I’m not on fire anymore.’”

A protester is sprayed with pepper spray by a federal agent on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray) - Adam Gray/AP

A protester's face is doused in water after he was pepper sprayed outside of the Bishop Whipple Federal Building, Monday, January 12, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck) - Jen Golbeck/APTear gas

Tear gas, another chemical irritant, is a mainstay for law enforcement seeking to disperse an unruly crowd.

The active ingredient in tear gas is actually a powder, according to Haar, who is also an emergency room physician and professor. Tear gas canisters don’t spray liquid but emit smoke-like particles of a chemical compound intended to cause disorientation, sensory irritation and pain.

Mindan Ocon lives in an apartment building less than a block away from Portland’s ICE facility, a site of frequent protests, where all kinds of chemical irritants of various colors have been deployed. Though not a protester, she has become all too familiar with the smell, taste and effects of tear gas.

Tear gas is an indiscriminate weapon, meaning once it is deployed, it cannot be controlled, and unintended targets may be affected, Haar said. Airborne tear gas can drift, infiltrating residents’ apartments through vents, air conditioning units and windowsills.

Federal agents walk through tear gas at the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building on October 18, 2025, in Portland, Oregon. - Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/Getty Images

“I honestly can’t even explain, but there’d be times where I just come in here, and my nose would just start itching, and I was sneezing, and I’m like, it’s not my allergies,” said Ocon.

Ocon took her 3-year-old daughter to the hospital last summer after tear gas, in the parking area beneath her apartment, seeped up into her unit, compromising both her and her daughter’s airways.

“Just instantly, your eyes and nose are attacked and watering and mucus is flowing,” Lake, the photojournalist explained.

“It can affect every body part,” said Haar. “But compounding this is this feeling of panic and suffocation and you can’t see, and sometimes that, by itself, has sort of a mental health impact as well.”

A used canister of tear gas is inspected after it was deployed by US Customs and Border Patrol agents toward community members in a residential neighborhood following a minor traffic accident in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 12, 2026. - Madison Thorn/Anadolu/Getty Images

The terror was visceral for Hawkins, the emergency room nurse who became the patient after being struck in the face with a tear gas canister in Portland last June.

“When I sat in that gurney in the ER, and I was pretty sure I was gonna lose my eye,” Hawkins said.

The impact of the tear gas canister narrowly avoided his eye and struck his eyebrow ridge. Hawkins described the moment as being struck by “a 90 mile per hour fastball pitch from a Major League pitcher without a helmet on.” He retained his eyesight.

Vincent Hawkins' injury from being struck by a tear gas canister in Portland, Oregon, in June. - Courtesy Vincent Hawkins

“I still have effects from it,” Hawkins said, describing vertigo spells that can last for a couple of hours. “I just have to walk a little slower and work a little extra hard to focus,” said the nurse. “That’s distracting when your room is spinning and you got to start an IV, and you got to do drug calculations.”

Flash-bangs

Flash-bangs are small explosives either fired from a launcher or thrown by hand that detonate with a bright flash of light simultaneously blinding and deafening a target for a short time.

While flash-bangs are often used in conducting high-risk arrest operations, there are certain instances when an agent or officer may opt to deploy such a device on an unruly crowd, including: when members of a crowd pose a direct threat to agents including by hurling projectiles, or if surrounded agents feel they are unable to safely depart an area when confronted by an unruly crowd, Campbell, the law enforcement analyst, said.

Moments after being struck directly by a flash-bang in an encounter with federal agents in Minneapolis, a protester showed CNN’s Ryan Young where shrapnel from the flash-bang became embedded into her knee.

“I was standing right up front, when all of a sudden, probably 10-12 officers come out, threw flash-bangs. It hit me truly right in the knee,” the protester said.

Campbell also pointed out that many law enforcement experts, including the Police Executive Research Forum, say the use of flash-bangs on demonstrators is usually counterproductive.

“But when they are used in protest, they’re often used in concert with other weapons … it’s a chilling effect on protests,” said Haar. “There’s a huge mental health component. And when all these different weapons are being used at once, that really doesn’t feel safe for peaceful demonstrations and doesn’t allow free speech and free assembly.”

A protester attempts to protect themselves as federal agents fire flash-bangs and pepper balls, amid risingstensions after federal law enforcement agents were involved in another shooting incident, a week after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Nicole Good, in north Minneapolis, Minnesota, on January 14, 2026. - Ryan Murphy/ReutersKinetic impact projectiles

Kinetic impact projectiles consist of foam or rubber bullets and bean bag rounds. While widely used, the American Civil Liberties Union warns these weapons “are inherently inaccurate when fired from afar and therefore can cause unintended injuries to bystanders.”

Bean bag rounds are small pouches, typically filled with about an ounce and a half of lead pellets, usually fired from a shotgun or a specialized launcher. They were used repeatedly during anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles last summer.

Foam or rubber bullets are exactly that – firm projectiles fired at high velocity by specially designed firearms. These munitions are much larger than lead bullets, and some include cores made of metal or wood covered by foam or rubber. Though they are considered “less-than-lethal,” there are cases where they have been found to disable, disfigure and even kill.

A member of the Los Angeles Metro Police fires a sponge round during a protest against federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025. - Daniel Cole/Reuters

The remains of a fired rubber bullet sit on the ground outside of the Broadview ICE processing facility, after President Donald Trump ordered increased federal law enforcement presence to assist in crime prevention, in Broadview, Illinois, on September 26, 2025. - Jim Vondruska/Reuters

Lauren Tomasi, a correspondent for CNN-affiliate 9 News in Australia was struck by a rubber bullet fired by police during her live broadcast of the Los Angeles anti-ICE protests last summer.

“Rubber and foam rounds are less lethal options law enforcement may use in certain circumstances to obtain so-called ‘pain compliance,’” Campbell said.

Tomasi can be heard yelping and grabs at her leg when struck, the video shows.

According to Haar, some law enforcement agencies are now employing more advanced rubber or foam bullet variants that contain capsaicin powder inside, further combining the blunt force trauma of the projectile with the effects of a chemical irritant.

Mental health impact

Ocon said she spent countless nights since last summer staring out her window watching federal agents from the ICE facility outside of her apartment.

Ocon said the tear gas incident that sent her toddler to the emergency room has weighed heavily on her mental health as she wrestles with the impacts on both her daughter’s and her own physical health.

“I lose a lot of sleep. I have PTSD from this absolutely, even, even some of the smaller things,” said Ocon.

For Phillips, participating in protests has prompted several levels of anxiety, from the first time she was pepper sprayed to worrying if federal immigration agents are going to detain her due to her protesting.

The incident in Durango also intensified Garcia’s anxiety. He said he worried constantly for a month after the incident if something was going to happen to him because he exercised his constitutional right by protesting. Garcia said he frequently looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was following him while walking even in his own neighborhood.

“I just kept getting very paranoid, like, every time I’d see a vehicle that looked like theirs, that was like behind me on the road, or if I saw like a cop car, like in my neighborhood, it would just make me very anxious,” Garcia said.

CNN’s Dakin Andone contributed to this report

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