Journalist Injured in NYC After ICE Officer Threw Him Out of An Elevator Onto the Floor
(AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
A photojournalist was hospitalized on Tuesday following an incident with ICE agents in New York City.
Video posted by New York Daily News and taken by freelance photojournalist Stephanie Keith shows Dean Moses, a photojournalist for amNewYork, following ICE agents into an elevator in a Manhattan building. While other journalists look on, Moses is forcefully removed from the elevator after being told to get off.
“Get the f**k out of the elevator!” an agent is heard saying as Moses is removed.
As Moses was removed, freelance journalist Olga Fedorova could be seen being knocked to the ground, seemingly by an agent in all the chaos.
The New York Daily News, which spoke to witnesses of the event, reported that L. Vural Elibol, a photographer for Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, was also knocked back during the scuffle.
“They pushed me off, and as another guy pulled me from behind, I hear the other [journalists] fall,” Moses told the paper. “I just heard the resounding thud as they hit the floor.”
The ICE agents appeared to be escorting two women who had reportedly been through an immigration hearing, but were not detained at the time of the incident.
Photos captured from the scene showed at least one photojournalist being carried away on a stretcher and wearing a neck brace.
A co-worker identified the individual on the stretcher as Elibol to the Gothamist. The physical altercation occurred at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on the 12th floor of the building. The FDNY confirmed that they responded to the incident with EMTs at around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday morning.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander responded to videos of the incident, calling it a “violent attack by an ICE officer.”
“Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on stretcher,” Lander wrote on X. “Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”
