Los Angeles immigration raids protests: 8 charged in LA county

8 LA protesters charged with crimes

After Massive immigration protests in Los Angeles, LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman has charged just eight demonstrators with violent protest-related crimes.

LOS ANGELES - After days of immigration protests in downtown Los Angeles and across LA County, county officials charged eight people with violent crimes related to the demonstrations. LA County District Attorney Nathan Hochman also noted that the overwhelming majority of the protesters have been peaceful.

What we know:

Hochman announced the charges alongside LA County Sheriff Robert Luna and LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell on Tuesday. The eight people were connected to five separate incidents. 

Juan Rodriguez from Gardena was charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest and advocating violence during the protests. According to Hochman, Rodriguez passed out commercial-grade fireworks to protesters, and he and they lit them and pointed them at officers. One of the fireworks, Hochman said, injured an officer. Rodriguez faces up to six years and four months in state prison.

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Randy Paul Ruiz and Georgina Ravellero were both charged with two felony counts of assaulting an officer. They're both accused of ramming into officers with motorcycles at the intersection of Temple and Alameda streets on June 8. They both also face up to six years and four months in state prison.

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Timmie Paulk and Raven Mitchell were charged with commercial burglary and grand theft. Hochman said that on June 8, Paulk was one of several people looting the Nike store on S. Broadway, and Mitchell allegedly drove the getaway car. They face up to three years in state prison.

Ulysses Sanchez was arrested for allegedly doing donuts in his minivan in downtown LA. Hochman said Sanchez is a "third-striker," and faces 25 years to life in state prison if convicted.

And finally, Christopher Gonzalez and Yoselyn Johnson have received vandalism related charges. Hochman accused Gonzalez of painting graffiti on the Hall of Justice. They both face more than three years in state prison.

By the numbers:

Before he announced the charges on Tuesday, Hochman noted that the peaceful protests across Los Angeles vastly outweighed the violence, blaming media for skewing the image of the protests.

"If you only saw the social media and the media reports of what's going on over the last five days, you would think that Los Angeles is on the verge of war, that we are truly being attacked repeatedly, over and over and over again, because that has been the media's message," Hochman said.

While he only used rough estimates, Hochman said there were "thousands" of people who had been involved in protests across LA County over the last five days. Of those thousands, Hochman said, only a few hundred had "engaged in this kind of illegal activity," Hochman said.

"That means that 99.99% of people who live in Los Angeles City or live in Los Angeles County have not committed any illegal acts in connection with this protest whatsoever," Hochman said.

LA DA Hochman: Violent protesters will be prosecuted

LA County DA Nathan Hochman spoke to FOX 11 to discuss the charges filed against protesters who initiated violence at anti-ICE protests. While thousands are peacefully protesting, Hochman said only a few hundred people are using the protest as an opportunity to commit crime.

Big picture view:

Several others have been charged with federal crimes for violence at protests, including one man charged with throwing Molotov cocktails at a demonstration in Paramount.

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What's next:

Hochman said that there are still dozens of cases being brought to his office for filing consideration, and said that he's confident there will be more charges. 

"For any individual who’s engaged in criminal conduct but did not get immediately arrested, let me provide some bad news for you. There's a tremendous amount of video out there through social media, and otherwise," Hochman said. "We will know who you are, who engaged in this conduct. We will track you down, we will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will punish you."