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Kaden Rummler GoFundMe: California protester says federal agent blinded him, then ‘mocked’ him about injured eye
Kaden Rummler, 21, was left blinded in one eye after a federal agent shot him at close range with non-lethal ammunition.
A protester in Santa Ana, California, was left blinded in one eye after attending an anti-ICE demonstration that turned violent, he and his family have claimed. Footage from the incident that took place January 9 showed a federal agent shooting Kaden Rummler at close range with non-lethal ammunition.
Agents were later seen dragging a bloody Rummler on the floor, according to The Mirror US. Officers were seen shoving around and hitting other protesters too.
A GoFundMe has been launched to help Rummler with medical expenses.
Who is Kaden Rummler?
Rummler, 21, is a self-described leftist and member of an activist group called ‘Dare to Struggle,’ according to KTLA 5. The incident took place during a protest sparked by the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good.
Footage from the protest shows protesters setting an American flag ablaze just before a confrontation with agents grew violent. A federal officer pulled a protester, later identified as Sky Jones, out of the group during the chaos. When Rummler ran after his friend, he was stopped by a less lethal round fired at close range that struck his left eye.
“When it hit me, I kind of didn’t realize what happened. I remember falling to my knees and I remember I covered my head. It was just this pressure and ringing in my years,” Rummler recalled, according to KTLA 5. “I had so much adrenaline from the impact that I wasn’t really feeling it yet, I don’t think.”
Read More | Trump calls Renee Nicole Good a ‘solid, wonderful person,’ sends message to her father
Footage then showed an agent dragging Rummler across the plaza, his face covered in blood, which ran down onto his clothes and shoes.
“I was like, ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ and he just kept dragging me and didn’t say a word,” Rummler said. “He was on top of me and putting my hands behind my back really aggressively and handcuffing me. I was pleading with him. I was like, ‘Please call an ambulance, there’s so much blood.”
An ambulance eventually arrived. However, Rummler recalled that before that, agents mocked him about his injured eye.
“From what I’ve heard the doctors say and everyone else, yes, I will be blind for the rest of my life,” Rummler said. “They pulled a piece of plastic the size of a nickel out of my eye. They said I had shards of metal, glass and plastic all throughout my eye, behind my eye, in my skull. They also said I had a piece of shrapnel, metal, a few millimeters from my carotid artery. They said it was a miracle I survived because if it had gotten any closer and hit that, I would’ve died that night.”
GoFundMe launched, family speaks out
A GoFundMe started to help Rummler says he was “denied medical care by the Feds”. “Luckily, K survived but is now in the hospital and needs surgery on their eye and needs assistance with medical bills. Any and all funds donated will be deposited into their bank account and go towards their medical expenses,” it adds.
At the time of writing this article, $41,395 had been raised of the 45K goal.
Rummler’s aunt, Jeri Rees, said that her nephew underwent a six-hour surgery after the incident. “The other officers were mocking him, saying, ‘You’re going to lose your eye,’” she said.
Meanwhile, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told the Los Angeles Times in a statement, “The mob of 60 rioters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at law enforcement officers outside the building.”
However, a spokesperson for the Santa Ana Police Department said that the only violence they witnessed that night was demonstrators throwing orange cones towards federal agents, KTLA 5 reported.
In a January 13 DHS statement obtained by the Los Angeles Times, federal officials said, “This is absurd. DHS law enforcement took this rioter to the hospital for a cut and he was released that night. … Make no mistake: Rioting and assaulting law enforcement is not only dangerous but a crime.”
However, Rummler’s father, a conservative Republican, told KTLA’s Mary Beth McDade that his son was not rioting and did not assault anyone. “DHS are way off,” he added.
