Woman sues LAPD after being shot in the face with paint projectile launcher during anti-ICE protest

Protester sues LAPD after being shot in the face

A woman says she was leaving a downtown LA anti-ICE protest when she was shot in the face with a less than lethal paint projectile. 

LOS ANGELES - Attorneys for Jasmin Lomas have filed a claim alleging excessive force by the LAPD, after the 25-year-old was shot in the face with a less than lethal round during an anti-ICE protest in downtown Los Angeles last month. 

What they're saying:

Lomas claims she was leaving the rally around 6 p.m. on Jan. 30 because things were getting out of hand. She said she walked away from the chaos in front of the federal detention center, off Aliso St., to Temple and Alameda, where she was trying to guide someone to pick her up.

She said she saw the crowd coming her way, and was about to take a photo of her location to send to her ride, when she felt a blow to her face, describing it as feeling like "getting hit with a basketball". 

It wasn't until she arrived at the hospital that she was told her face was filled with fragments from a projectile her attorneys believe came from an FN-330 less than lethal paint projectile launcher. 

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"Even with the blood, I realized it was bad. It wasn't till I got to the hospital and they were telling me this is glass and metal and it burned my skin," Lomas told FOX 11.

Lomas says doctors haven't been able to remove all the metal fragments from her face, adding she will need extensive treatment.  

"It was very uncalled for, I was just standing there, I wasn't carrying anything that would indicate I was a threat to them."

The other side:

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told Police Commissioners at a board meeting the following week that paint projectile launchers were used during those protests, saying "they were used only after dispersal orders failed, and criminal activity continued throughout the incident."

LAPD will not comment on pending litigation. 

Dig deeper:

THE FN-330 is being used as a "safer" crowd control tool by the LAPD, after a court order required the department to stop using the 40mm less than lethal projectile launchers. 

It shoots high-speed .68 caliber projectiles, containing paint that can't be washed off easily, and small pieces of metal designed to cause a "dissuasive level of pain", according to the manufacturer.