Federal Agents Fire Tear Gas in Direction of CNN Reporter: ‘Wow, This Is Nasty’    

CNN reporter Shimon Prokupecz got a solid dose of tear gas after federal agents fired some canisters in his direction.

Prokupecz was on the ground in Minneapolis to cover the ongoing protests against the swell of federal immigration officers in the area. Agents from Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been carrying out operations in the Twin Cities, and demonstrations intensified after last week’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross.

On Thursday’s Laura Coates Live, Prokupecz reported from the Whipple Center, a federal building where ICE maintains a facility. The reporter said protesters were kicking and throwing objects at federal law enforcement vehicles as a throng of agents in riot gear stood by.

“So for the past two hours, we’ve been watching as protesters have been kicking cars, throwing things at cars as they are federal law enforcement vehicles that have been going into this building,” he explained. “And we have watched, and federal law enforcement has done nothing–”

At “done nothing,” agents began firing tear gas in the direction of Prokupecz and some of the protestors. At least two projectiles appeared to land mere feet away from the reporter and his cameraperson.

“And here we go,” he said after the interruption. “We’re starting to throw those– hold on. Let me just come back here. As you can see, basically now they’re just deploying tear gas because what’s been happening is that we have more tear gas here.”

Prokupecz instructed the cameraperson to move back and coughed repeatedly from the effects of the gas.

“We’re following you, Shimon,” Laura Coates said back in the studio. “I can hear you. I know you’re trying to catch your breath from the deployment of that. Very disruptive.”

“Well, they threw the percussion grenades, and then they came from the other side, and they started throwing the tear gas,” he continued, coughing throughout his report. “So this crowd, this line of law enforcement that we were in front of, was pushing the crowd back. Then, from the other side came the other set of law enforcement officials who started throwing those percussion grenades and then tear gas. The crowd wasn’t a very large crowd. But Laura, what’s been happening–”

Prokupecz continued coughing profusely and said, “Wow, this is nasty.”

“Catch your breath for a second,” said Coates, who recapped the situation to give Prokupecz a few moments to recover.

Watch above via CNN.