‘I Can’t See Anything!’ Tear Gas Leaves Reporter Gasping for Breath in Stunning Live Hit from LA Protest

A reporter was left gasping for breath during a live hit — as law enforcement used tear gas to break up a demonstration in Los Angeles Saturday night.

Reporting live on CBS Los Angeles, correspondent Lauren Pozen chronicled the stunning scene as law enforcement used tear gas and flash bangs to disperse the crowd protesting ICE immigration raids outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A.

“Oh my God!” Pozen said — as a flash bang went off nearby. “We have tear gas, we have fireworks going off. Tear gas is in the air. People are dispersing.”

At that moment, Pozen began violently coughing and gasping for breath.

“I can’t see anything!” Pozen said. “I’m sorry, I can’t see anything!”

Pozen’s coughing fit could be heard for roughly 15 seconds before producers switched to a different shot. Fortunately, three minutes later, the reporter was brought back in after quickly recovering.

“Things happened so quickly out here,” Pozen said. “My back was turned to the camera and all of a sudden, we heard that big boom. And that was a massive amount of tear gas. I don’t want to make this all about me, but it’s all in my eyes, and my face, and my throat is burning. But that is the reaction with everybody here. And that was the purpose here, to get everybody to move.”

According to the correspondent, law enforcement only used the tear gas after the demonstrators directly provoked the police.

“They were going up right to the doors of the dock and lighting off fireworks, and basically antagonized the police,” Pozen said. She added that during the day, the demonstrations were “mostly peaceful,” but at night they “took a turn.”

President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of at least 2,000 national guard troops to shut down the demonstrations — in what marked the first time since the Rodney King riots in 1992 that the national guard was called in to respond to a civil disturbance. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said late Saturday that active duty Marines could be called in as well. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) has denounced the federal intervention and called Hegseth’s threat “deranged.”

Watch above, via CBS Los Angeles