A peaceful protest against President Donald Trump’s immigration policies took a violent turn in the heart of downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon after a 17-year-old boy was viciously stabbed amidst the sea of demonstrators in Grand Park.
The attack occurred around 1:30pm near North Spring Street, just steps away from City Hall, where students, activists, and concerned citizens had gathered to voice their outrage over the administration’s stance on immigration enforcement.
Video from the scene captured the moment a boy, shirtless and drenched in his own blood, collapsed as panicked protesters scrambled to help him.
His back, shoulder, and forearm could be seen with bloody wounds.
Another video circulating on social media, appeared to show the exact moment of the stabbing.
The footage, murky and grainy, suggests most of those involved were minors.
Police quickly responded to the attack as the victim was rushed away in an ambulance. Authorities identified the suspect as a juvenile male.
Witnesses say there was a heated argument between the victim and another minor shortly before the attack, but police have yet to confirm a motive.
‘I came to the protest, and there was a guy that came up who wasn’t even a part of the protest, and just shanked a dude,’ a witness named Will told KTLA.
‘I got it all on my camera and I just walked over, I told them to apply pressure, cut up some shirts, wrap them around him so it would stop the bleeding.’
The stabbing cast a shadow over what had been a week of lively but largely peaceful protests.
Across Los Angeles, from Van Nuys to Huntington Park, students had walked out of classrooms in defiance, condemning the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants and demanding justice for families separated by deportation.
In Huntington Park, Lissette Sandoval, a young activist, summed up the collective sentiment of many demonstrators to ABC7.
‘My parents, they fought for me to be able to be here, to build a life for myself. They can’t come out here and protest, so I’m protesting for them.’
Demonstrators have been gathering in cities across the US to protest the Trump administration’s early actions decrying everything from the president’s immigration crackdown to his rollback of transgender rights and a proposal to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the Gaza Strip.
Under Trump’s new orders, ICE is now allowed to target migrants at sensitive locations, like schools and churches, for arrests and potential deportations.
There are an estimated 11 million to 15 million immigrants lacking documentation in the U.S., including more than 2 million in California.
Some protesters waved signs denouncing President Donald Trump; billionaire Elon Musk, the leader of Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE); and Project 2025 , a hard-right playbook for American government and society.