LOS ANGELES — It was a request that police had made repeatedly: Stop throwing things at officers. But as pro-Palestinian demonstrators made their last stand Thursday morning in defense of the encampment they’d occupied at UCLA for the better part of a week, some protesters did not comply.

After another piece of wood or a plastic water bottle was flung toward law enforcement, demonstrators would yell for the others to stop hurling projectiles. Still, they kept flying.

The police, who were decked out in full riot gear, eventually had enough. One officer raised the barrel of his gun in the direction of a front-line demonstrator and shot him square in the chest with a “less-lethal” round that made a deep thud as it connected.

The protester fell to the ground, where he remained in a ball for about a minute while others called for a medic. A couple of people with red crosses emblazoned on their protective gear made their way through the mass of bodies and picked up the demonstrator. They quickly hauled him off to the medical tent at the center of the encampment, where a few other protesters were being treated for injuries.

In a Thursday statement, the UCLA Palestine Solidarity Encampment decried law enforcement’s actions: “They tore students from our human chain and shot rubber bullets at close range. … Many were rushed to the ER after the bullets connected with heads and hands.” The UCLA branch of Students for Justice in Palestine posted on X on Thursday morning that there were “at least five people shot in the head with rubber bullets.”

Los Angeles Police Capt. Kelly Muniz said LAPD officers did not fire rubber bullets or other less-lethal rounds during the clearing of the encampment. A media representative for the California Highway Patrol — whose officers were seen firing less-lethal rounds Thursday — said the department did not have information about injuries.

Although law enforcement describes weapons such as the ones the CHP’s officers fired as less lethal, the agency’s manual classifies them as likely to result in significant injury.

Ed Obayashi, a Northern California use-of-force expert, said such projectile weapons are known for their lack of accuracy over distance. “It is not unexpected,” he said, “that someone could be seriously injured by a less-lethal weapon.”

Los Angeles Times reporters and photojournalists witnessed several instances of protesters being injured during the Thursday morning clearing of the UCLA encampment, yet LAPD interim Chief Dominic Choi, less than 12 hours later, expressed relief.

“I am thankful there were no serious injuries to officers or protesters,” Choi wrote on X.

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