SACRAMENTO — Lakers guard Luka Doncic will miss at least one week with a left finger sprain and a left lower leg contusion, the team announced Sunday before a road game at Sacramento.
The star guard suffered the finger injury early in Friday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. It didn’t slow him down at all, though, as Doncic finished with 49 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists in a 128-110 Lakers victory. The 26-year-old is off to a blazing start as his 92 points in the first two games are the most in Lakers history to begin a season.
The Lakers announced Doncic will be reevaluated in about one week, but it will be a busy stretch without the five-time All-Star. Already without LeBron James as the 40-year-old deals with a sciatica injury, the Lakers have four games in six days this week. After Sacramento on Sunday, the Lakers (1-1) return to L.A. to face Portland on Monday and have road games at Minnesota and Memphis on Wednesday and Friday, respectively.
The Lakers will be down to just nine standard contract players Sunday as center Jaxson Hayes was also ruled out with left knee soreness. He will miss his second consecutive game. James and forwards Maxi Kleber (abdominal muscle strain) and Adou Theiro (knee) are also out.
Naomi Osaka has pulled out of the Japan Open before Friday’s quarter-final because of a leg injury sustained in the second round.
The former world number one held back tears and needed painkillers to come through a three-set last-16 win over defending champion Suzan Lamens on Wednesday.
Top seed Osaka, who completed the match with strapping on her left thigh, was due to face Jaqueline Cristian in the last eight but the Romanian will instead progress to the semi-finals.
The Japan Open made the announcement on X, saying: “We regret to announce that Naomi Osaka has not recovered from a left leg injury sustained during the second round of this tournament and has withdrawn from the quarter-finals scheduled for today.”
It is not yet known whether Osaka will play in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo later this month.
The four-time Grand Slam champion is the latest high-profile player to suffer late-season injury issues.
In September, Iga Swiatek complained the season is “too long and too intense” following a string of injuries among players at the China Open.
Former USC quarterback Mark Sanchez is facing a felony charge after his physical altercation with a 69-year-old truck driver this weekend left the other man with what the prosecuting attorney described Monday as “significant and very severe” injuries.
The driver, Indiana resident Perry Tole, also filed a civil lawsuit Monday against Sanchez, alleging that he had suffered “severe permanent disfigurement, loss of function, other physical injuries, emotional distress, and other damages” as a result of the 38-year-old former NFL player’s actions.
Marion County, Ind., prosecutor Ryan Mears told reporters at a news conference Monday that Sanchez was being charged with a level five felony of battery involving serious bodily injury, which Mears said could result in one to six years in prison.
After a preliminary probable cause affidavit was filed by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department on Saturday, Sanchez was charged with three misdemeanors — battery resulting in injury, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle and public intoxication.
Further investigation by the IMPD preceded the filing of a second probable cause affidavit Monday morning, which led to the felony charge against Sanchez.
“Once we were provided with additional information about the victim’s current medical condition, it became clear to us that additional charges needed to be filed,” Mears said during the joint news conference with IMPD Chief Chris Bailey.
Mears added that it’s possible that more charges could come connected to the incident that occurred late Friday night and into early Saturday morning in an alley outside a downtown Indianapolis hotel.
“One of the things that I’m going to stress to everybody is that we are still in the early stages of this investigation,” Mears said. “Chief and his team have a number of search warrants that are still outstanding. They’re still tracking down additional information. This is, by no means, the end of this investigation. This, by no means, means that these are going to be final charges that we move forward with.”
Sanchez remained in the hospital and was listed in stable condition as of Monday morning. According to court documents, the 2009 Rose Bowl MVP was booked on the misdemeanor charges Sunday and a $300 bond was posted on his behalf at that time.
Mears said Monday that since the case will be now transferred to a major felony court, it would be up to the new court whether an additional bond will be issued based on the new charge.
Attorneys James H. Voyles Jr. and Jennifer M. Lukemeyer, listed in court documents as representing Sanchez in the criminal case, declined to comment to The Times.
An initial court hearing scheduled for Tuesday morning has been postponed until Nov. 4.
According to the first IMPD affidavit, which was based on hotel surveillance footage and a statement Tole gave to the police, Tole had backed his box truck onto the hotel’s loading docks while performing his job with a company that recycles and disposes of commercial cooking oil.
Sanchez allegedly confronted Tole and said that the hotel manager had told Sanchez he didn’t want the driver to replace the cooking oil. The Fox Sports analyst, who was in town to call Sunday’s Raiders-Colts game for Fox Sports, allegedly smelled of alcohol at the time.
During the ensuing altercation, Sanchez threw Tole toward a wall and also onto the ground, the affidavit said, before Tole, believing he was in danger, sprayed Sanchez with pepper spray and eventually stabbed him.
“Certainly the thing that stands out to us is this was a situation that did not need to occur,” Mears said Monday. “… We’re literally talking about people fighting over a parking space or a dispute about where people are parking, and it resulted in someone receiving just incredibly significant injuries.”
Tole suffered a laceration on his left cheek and was taken to a different hospital than Sanchez, the affidavit said. Max Lewis of WXIN-TV in Indianapolis reported Sunday that Tole’s family said that the cut “went through his cheek and hit his tongue,” making speech difficult.
Lewis also posted photos he said were provided by the family that showed the driver in a hospital bed with sheets that appeared to have several blood stains on them near the area of the cut on the man’s cheek. Tole, whose eyes had been blackened out to protect his identity at the time, is wearing what appears to be a neck brace and is hooked up to monitors.
They added: “We are talking to lawyers first. We want to be careful what’s said.”
Tole’s civil lawsuit, filed Monday in Marion County Superior Court, states that he suffered “significant injuries to his head, jaw and neck.”
Sanchez’s employer, Fox Corporation, is named as a co-defendant in the civil suit, on a count of neglient hiring, retention and supervision. Fox Sports did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times.
Tole is seeking compensatory and punitive damages to be determined at trial.
A THREE-year-old boy has been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after a horror van crash.
The tot was walking in a car park in Bournemouth, when a blue Vauxhall Vivaro hit him on Saturday.
Dorset Police were called to the scene, in Landsdowne Road, at 12.35pm.
Paramedics rushed the three-year-old to hospital with serious injuries.
His family is being supported by specialist officers.
No arrests have been made and the van driver is assisting officers with the investigation, said the force.
Sergeant Richard Stroud, of the Roads Policing Team, said: “Our thoughts are with the young boy involved in this incident and his family.
“Our enquiries into what happened remain ongoing and I would urge anyone who witnessed the incident, or who has any information that might assist our investigation, to please contact us.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Dorset Police online, via email at [email protected] or by calling 101, quoting occurrence number 55250147249.
Alternatively, independent charity Crimestoppers can be contacted anonymously online using its website or by calling Freephone 0800 555 111.
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A three-year-old boy has been taken to hospital with serious injuriesCredit: Google Street View
Neighbours were left shocked after the bodies were discovered at a property in the village of Ormesby, North Yorkshire, on Wednesday, police said.
Cleveland Police are treating the deaths as “unexplained” at present with detectives carrying out investigations.
A property on Millbeck Way was cordoned off on Thursday morning after police made the grim discovery on Wednesday afternoon.
One local resident told TeessideLive that they hadn’t seen the people living at the property in “almost three weeks”.
They said: “I had a funny feeling after a week that something wasn’t right.”
Another resident said: “I was gutted when I heard, it was sad really.
“They were lovely people to speak to, they were to me, they were polite.”
There were also reports of the windows of the property being smashed or boarded up.
A spokesperson for Cleveland Police said: “At approximately 2.45pm on Wednesday, September 24, police attended to a property on Millbeck Way and located two bodies inside.
“The deaths are currently being treated as unexplained as detectives begin an investigation into the circumstances.
“A scene is in place at the property.”
More to follow… For the latest news on this story keep checking back at The Sun Online
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A MAN has been rushed to hospital with serious injuries after he was crushed under a large tree.
The tree is believed to have been damaged in the recent stormy weather.
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The dog walker was rushed to hospital after being found with serious injuriesCredit: WlStoke_Lodge / X
The horror incident unfolded on Shirehampton Road, Bristol, just before 5pm.
Emergency services rushed to assist the man who was out walking his dog when the terrifying incident occurred.
Police and fire crews were scrambled to the scene where the man was found with “serious injuries.”
He was rushed to hospital to be treated by medics.
A spokesperson for Avon and Somerset Police said: “We were called by the ambulance service shortly before 5pm to reports a man had been injured after a tree fell in Shirehampton Road in the Stoke Bishop area of Bristol.
“Emergency services attended and the man was taken to hospital for treatment of injuries described as serious.”
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The tree is believed to have been damaged in the recent stormy weatherCredit: WlStoke_Lodge / X
More settler attacks also take place across the territory, with a Palestinian husband and wife hurt in the violence.
Published On 31 Aug 202531 Aug 2025
The Israeli army has carried out raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank, with incidents reported in the cities of Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus and Ramallah.
Multiple Palestinians were detained in the territory on Sunday, according to the Wafa news agency, including a child and a young man in the town of Yabad.
Reports suggested that a 37-year-old man was also arrested in the town of Beit Fajjar, while a 25-year-old man was taken into Israeli custody in the town of Nilin near Ramallah.
Several raids took place in the Ramallah and el-Bireh governorate, just days after Israel launched a prolonged raid in the area that injured at least 58 people.
Israeli soldiers were also present in the towns of Kafr Malek, Nilin and Deir Qaddis, but did not make any arrests.
Elsewhere in the West Bank, intense and continuous gunfire broke out south of Hebron, as shown by online videos verified by Al Jazeera.
Wafa said that five Palestinians, including a girl, were injured by Israeli bullets and taken to hospital for treatment.
Israeli soldiers also allegedly fired live ammunition in the northern village of Sarra and the town of Sebastia, but no injuries were reported.
Meanwhile, a settler attack left a Palestinian man and his wife with injuries in Khallet al-Daba village in Masafer Yatta.
Israeli settlers also attacked Palestinian homes in the village of Kisan near Bethlehem.
The Wafa news agency reports that the settlers broke into Palestinian properties and looted them, while receiving protection from the Israeli army.
In the first eight months of the year, more than 1,000 Israeli settler attacks have been recorded in the occupied West Bank that caused injuries, property damage or both, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Settlers rampage on Palestinian land on a daily basis, with impunity and backed by the Israeli military.
Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 671 Palestinians, including 129 children, across the region since October 2023, according to OCHA.
An armed settler stands near Israeli troops during a weekly settlers’ tour in Hebron, in the occupied West Bank, August 23, 2025 [Mussa Qawasma/Reuters]
As well as the Israeli raids and the settler attacks, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said that Israeli authorities had engaged in unauthorised excavation and demolition operations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
“These operations deliberately target Islamic antiquities dating back to the Umayyad period, which stand as living witnesses and irrefutable evidence of Muslims’ rightful claim to the site,” the PA’s Jerusalem governorate said in a statement.
It said that Israel intends to remove the site’s Muslim history to build a Jewish temple there in the future.
Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca thinks Cole Palmer’s injury is “not random” and is concerned about the lingering effects of winning the Fifa Club World Cup.
The 23-year-old forward has been ruled out of Saturday’s Premier League match at home to Fulham.
Palmer’s injury has been linked to an unprecedented 12-month season where his team played 64 matches, including the expanded Club World Cup tournament in July.
After beating Paris St-Germain in New Jersey on July 13, and having less than two weeks to prepare for the current campaign, Chelsea had their shortest ever gap between seasons. This included the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns, which were impacted by the Covid pandemic.
When asked about Palmer’s absence, Maresca said: “I don’t think that it is random that our three players with the most minutes last year were Levi [Colwill], Cole and Moi [Caicedo].
“Levi is injured, Cole too and Moi today only had his first training session since the West Ham game.
“It is not random, it is the amount of games. Look at [Manchester] City last year, they lost Rodri after two or three games. He was a player that had the most minutes for them.
“We are going to have problems this season for sure because of last season. But It’s about how we can adapt and get players to recover.”
England defender Colwill started 35 of Chelsea’s 38 league matches last season but is expected to be out for the majority of the season after knee surgery.
Meanwhile, Caicedo is now a doubt for the visit of Fulham, having been Chelsea’s only player to start every league match last season.
Palmer, who pulled out of last week’s win at West Ham with a niggle in the warm-up, was also a near ever-present in the previous campaign.
Maresca added: “I have said that with Cole we are much better with him than without him. But if he has some problems we need to give him the right time to recover.
“It doesn’t matter if Estevao [Willian] is there or not, we can’t tell Cole he can relax, we need Cole back at 100%.”
Fifpro president Sergio Marchi claimed Fifa “chose to continue increasing its revenue at the expense of the players’ bodies and health” in July after Chelsea’s 3-0 victory over PSG to end the tournament in the United States.
ISTANBUL — During a pool training session months ago, Ukrainian war veteran Oleh Tserkovnyi was struck by an idea: What if a group of veterans swam across the strait of Bosphorus, between Turkey’s European and Asian shores? And if they did it on Aug. 24, Ukraine’s Independence Day?
The symbolism of the day would draw attention to the toll and devastation inflicted by Russia’s full-out war on Ukraine, now in its fourth year.
When the 34-year-old pitched the idea to fellow veterans in their One for Another support group, none raised injuries, particularly their amputations, as a barrier. Two joined him right away.
They trained for months, with the support of Superhumans Center, a veterans’ rehabilitation clinic in Ukraine, and coached by CapitalTRI, an amateur triathlon team in Kyiv. They agreed their race would have another goal — to raise money for prosthetics, which remain costly and urgently needed by many of Ukraine’s wounded.
“We’re not asking for pity,” Tserkovnyi told The Associated Press shortly before the competition. “We’re asking for support.”
A race that links continents
After months of rigorous training, discipline and physical challenges, the three Ukrainian veterans on Sunday joined more than 2,800 swimmers from 81 countries in the 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) crossing from Asia to Europe.
The Bosphorus Intercontinental Swimming Race is an open-water event held each year in Istanbul, organized by the Turkish Olympic Committee since 1989.
All three Ukrainians completed the crossing, each swimming for more than an hour. The two veterans with amputations faced setbacks even before the start — the organizers initially barred them from competing, insisting they have to be in a separate category for people with disabilities.
But they persevered and swam the race, alongside the others.
For the Ukrainians, it wasn’t just about endurance but about reclaiming control over bodies transformed by war — and sharing their recovery with a world that often seems indifferent to the injuries they carry.
Seeking balance in the water
Sports had always been a part of Tserkovnyi’s life, but war and injury pushed him to use it as a survival tool after two severe, life-changing concussions — a bridge back to life for war veterans with disabilities.
“Sport itself heals — we’ve seen that firsthand,” he said. “And the community, it pulls you through. It pushes you, it disciplines you.”
When he speaks, he’s quick to point out the changes he sees in himself — the stutter, the involuntary twitch in his eye.
“It’s what’s left over. It used to be much worse,” he said.
Both of his concussions were the result of prolonged exposure to artillery fire while serving on the front line. He was a sniper when the second one hit. Afterward, he said, it felt like he had lost his sense of balance entirely.
“There were times I could walk, but then suddenly I’d just tip over like a pencil,” Tserkovnyi said. “I have third-degree hearing loss on one side, no peripheral vision.”
The sense of being “a sick person,” he said, felt so foreign to him that he threw himself into recovery with everything he had. For a long time, he also had PTSD symptoms, including dramatic flashbacks to the war.
But it was in the pool that he found a way to recognize the warning signs. “I began to understand what triggers them, when they come, and how to stay ahead of them,” he said.
A path back to oneself
Engineer Pavlo Tovstyk signed up as a volunteer in the early days after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Serving as a driver in an intelligence unit, he stepped on a landmine in June 2023.
The blast took his foot and subsequent surgeries led to a partial amputation of his left leg.
The 47-year-old, who used to be an active swimmer as a child, never thought swimming would become a lifeline. He was still recovering from his injury when he began sneaking into the swimming pool, keeping it a secret from the doctors.
“Water became a kind of savior for me,” he said. “At the time, everything felt disoriented. But in the water, my thoughts, my strength, my body — it all came together again. I became myself again. Just … different.”
The idea to swim the strait in Turkey started almost as a dare, then became a plan.
“To cross the Bosphorus, you need not just physical strength, but a certain mindset — a state of determination that all of us managed to find within ourselves,” he said.
Calm found in purpose
Oleksandr Dashko discovered swimming only after losing his left leg.
The 28-year-old had joined the military at the start of the Russian invasion and served in the infantry in various front-line areas.
In June 2023, a mine exploded near him and shrapnel tore into his knee.
“I didn’t take it very graciously, let’s say,” he said as he recounted the conflicted feelings that tormented him for so long. Adjustment to life with an amputation has been slow and mentally taxing.
It was only over the past year that he was able to focus on physical rehabilitation — and swimming, he said, has become the activity that brings him a sense of calm.
The challenge of swimming the Bosphorus became a purpose for Dashko.
“When I do nothing, I slip back to that state right after the injury — depression, apathy, the feeling that the amputation is winning,” he said. “But when something like this shows up on my path, it gives me a jolt — to live, to move forward, to motivate others.”
Physical goals, he said, help anchor him. He hopes for more such challenges, not just for himself, but for other veterans.
“Honestly, if it weren’t for this, I’d probably be drunk and lying under a fence somewhere,” he said.
Maloletka and Arhirova write for the Associated Press. Arhirova reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.
Aug. 21 (UPI) — The U.S. Navy reported a fire aboard the amphibious docking ship USS New Orleans on Thursday. It was anchored near White Beach Naval Facility in Okinawa, Japan.
U.S. Navy crews and Japanese Coast Guard crews extinguished the fire about 4 a.m. Japan Standard Time, the Navy’s 7th Fleet said. The blaze began at about 4 p.m.Wednesday, and the cause is under investigation.
The crew of the amphibious transport dock ship USS San Diego helped New Orleans sailors fight the fire. The San Diego is moored at White Beach.
Two sailors suffered minor injuries and were treated aboard the New Orleans.
The New Orleans crew will stay aboard the ship, the Navy said.
The fire could further hurt the availability of amphibious warships while the Navy is struggling with readiness issues within the fleet, the Navy Times said. The readiness rate of amphibious ships critical to Marine missions has dropped to 41%, a defense official told Military Times earlier this week.
An investigation by the Government Accountability Office in 2024 found that half of the U.S. Navy’s 32 amphibious warfare ships were in poor material condition.
Aug. 13 (UPI) — A train, seemingly transporting hazardous materials, has derailed in north-central Texas, according to responders who say no injuries have been reported.
The incident occurred at about 2 p.m. CDT Tuesday in Palo Pinto County, home to about 30,000 people and located 100 miles west of Dallas.
At least 30 rail cars of the train derailed in the incident, which prompted the deployment of multiple local and federal responders, including hazmat officials with train operator Union Pacific Railroad, Palo Pinto County Emergency Services District 1 said in a statement.
Officials said there have been no confirmed leaks of hazardous materials from the cars, though it was unclear what hazardous materials they contained.
“All personnel have been accounted for, and no injuries have been reported,” Palo Pinto County EMSD1 said. “The situation is currently stable, but not yet fully controlled.
As of 9 p.m. CDT, fire crews were continuing to extinguish small grass fires ignited by the derailment. Union Pacific was on scene with equipment and cranes, preparing to move the rail cars off that track, officials said, adding that the scene will remain active for several days.
Shigetoshi Kotari and Hiromasa Urakawa pass away within a day of each other after separate bouts on the same card.
Two Japanese boxers have died from brain injuries sustained in separate bouts on the same card at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.
Shigetoshi Kotari, 28, collapsed shortly after completing a 12-round draw against Oriental and Pacific Boxing Federation (OPBF) junior lightweight champion Yamato Hata on August 2.
He underwent emergency brain surgery for a subdural haematoma – a condition in which blood collects between the brain and skull – but died on Friday.
“Rest in peace, Shigetoshi Kotari,” the World Boxing Organization (WBO) wrote on social media. “The boxing world mourns the tragic passing of Japanese fighter Shigetoshi Kotari, who succumbed to injuries sustained during his August 2nd title fight.
“A warrior in the ring. A fighter in spirit. Gone too soon. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family, team, and the entire Japanese boxing community.”
On Saturday, 28-year-old Hiromasa Urakawa died after suffering the same injury during a knockout loss to Yoji Saito. He had undergone a craniotomy in an attempt to save his life.
“This heartbreaking news comes just days after the passing of Shigetoshi Kotari, who died from injuries suffered in his fight on the same card,” the WBO said in another social media post on Saturday. “We extend our deepest condolences to the families, friends, and the Japanese boxing community during this incredibly difficult time.”
In response, the Japanese Boxing Commission announced all OPBF title bouts will now be reduced from 12 rounds to 10.
Earlier this year, Irish boxer John Cooney died a week after being taken into intensive care following his Celtic super-featherweight title defeat to Nathan Howells in Belfast.
The US football league has previously faced legal challenges over its failure to address players’ concussions.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has said that a gunman who killed five people, including himself, sought out the headquarters of the National Football League (NFL), which he blamed for the brain injuries he suffered from.
Adams said on Tuesday that a note carried by the shooter, identified as 27-year-old Shane Tamura, suggests his target was the NFL.
“The note alluded to that he felt he had CTE [chronic traumatic encephalopathy], a known brain injury for those who participate in contact sports,” Adams told CBS News. “He appeared to have blamed the NFL for his injury.”
But Tamura appears to have arrived at the wrong floor of a New York City office tower and instead opened fire in the offices of a real estate firm, on top of shooting people in the ground-floor lobby.
Police officers work near the scene of a shooting in Manhattan on July 28 [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters]
The NFL has previously faced litigation relating to concussions suffered by football players.
The organisation, which oversees professional US football, has denied any link between conditions like CTE and its sport, but it has nevertheless paid out more than $1bn to settle concussion-related lawsuits.
Monday’s shooting has also renewed debate about mass shootings and access to firearms in the US. Tamura reportedly entered the building with an AR-15-style rifle.
The NFL’s headquarters are located in a skyscraper that it shares with other firms.
Tamara is believed to have started shooting as he entered the lobby of the skyscraper. Then, police believe he took the wrong elevator, arriving at the 33rd floor, which contained the offices of Rudin Management, a real estate firm.
There, he opened fire once more and then took his own life.
Among those killed in the shooting was a 36-year-old police officer named Didarul Islam, who had come to the US from Bangladesh and had been on the force for three years.
Other victims include security guard Aland Etienne, Julia Hyman of Rudin Management, and an executive at the BlackRock investment firm, Wesley LePatner.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell stated in a memo that there would be an “increased security presence” at the organisation’s offices over the coming weeks.
Tamura is a resident of Las Vegas, Nevada, with a history of mental health issues. He never played in the NFL, but he did play football in high school.
The news outlet Bloomberg reported that Tamura’s note alleges that his football career was cut short by a brain injury.
The note also called for his brain to be studied. CTE can only be diagnosed through an autopsy.
CINCINNATI — The Dodgers are dealing with more injuries to their lineup.
As a result, one of their top prospects could get his first big-league opportunity this week.
Alex Freeland, the top-ranked infielder in the Dodgers’ farm system, will be in Cincinnati on Tuesday in case either Tommy Edman (who had his lingering ankle injury flare up on him Sunday while rounding the bases) or Hyeseong Kim (who has been battling a shoulder issue over the last week) needs to go on the injured list, manager Dave Roberts said after the Dodgers’ Monday night win over the Reds.
“He’s going to come and we’ll see what direction we go, with who,” Roberts said. “We’re just kind of trying to figure out … if we do need to make a move for one of those guys.”
Freeland, a third-round pick in 2022 out of the University of Central Florida, is the team’s No. 3 overall prospect according to MLB Pipeline and the 35th-ranked prospect in baseball.
The 23-year-old switch-hitter has spent all season with triple-A Oklahoma City, where he has batted .253 with 12 home runs, 71 RBIs and .799 OPS in 94 games.
Now, he might get his first crack at the big-league roster, with the Dodgers facing another round of injury headaches following Monday’s game.
In the short term, Kim’s shoulder injury appears to be the more pressing issue.
The South Korean rookie has struggled mightily at the plate lately, with an 0-for-3 performance Monday leaving him just three for 24 since July 19.
“You can just see offensively with the bat, he’s just not himself right now,” Roberts said.
Dodgers infielder Hyeseong Kim, who is dealing with a shoulder injury, has struggled at the plate in recent games.
(Jeff Chiu / Associated Press)
Edman, however, represents the bigger long-term concern for the Dodgers to manage, with his ankle injury lingering since early May.
“It’s something that’s kind of always there,” Edman said. “But I would say it’s been pretty normal.”
At least it was until Sunday, when Edman said he “had a little tweak of it” while running the bases at Fenway Park.
While Edman was not available for Monday’s game, he maintained optimism he could avoid what would be a second injured list this season and be back in the lineup Tuesday.
“I don’t feel like this is that big a deal,” he said. “I was just at a point where I didn’t feel like I could run full speed today. I got some good treatment today so hopefully I’ll be back available tomorrow.”
Still, the Dodgers could decide that an extended break for the utilityman is warranted — especially since he has been unable to play outfield while trying to manage his injury.
“Obviously, if I couldn’t hit him tonight, for him to not to be able to play three innings of defense, isn’t a great feeling,” Roberts said.
Freeland will be waiting in the wings just in case.
A native of Louisville, Ken., he made a major jump up the Dodgers’ farm system last year, when he progressed from high A to triple A while batting .260 across three minor-league levels.
A disciplined hitter with 228 career walks in 345 career minor-league games, Freeland has received high marks for his defense at shortstop and third base. He also has 81 steals over his four minor-league seasons.
How will the Dodgers determine if Kim or Edman — or both — will need to go on the IL?
“That’s the thing that, it is a blurred line,” Roberts said. “The players obviously feel that they’re not hurt, where they can play and post, which is great. But the line of, are you still hurting the team, hurting yourself, that’s the thing that the organization, the training staff, we’ve got to make that decision.”
When and if they do, the Dodgers know who will be tapped as a potential replacement.
Keith Meister is worried. The 63-year-old orthopedic surgeon feels as if he’s screaming into a void, his expert opinion falling on deaf ears.
Meister, whose slight Southern twang sweeps into conversation through his 20-plus-year career in the Lone Star State as the Texas Rangers’ team physician, is a leading voice in baseball’s pitching-injury epidemic. Meister wants the sport to err on the side of caution and create change to save pitchers’ arms. The trend, Meister says, stems from the industry-wide push to increase speed, spin and break at all costs.
While MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Assn. bicker about what’s causing the problem and how to solve it, the doctor provides his perspective. He just wants the 17-year-old high schooler, the 23-year-old college pitcher, and the 32-year-old MLB veteran to stop showing up at his office.
“It’s not going to change at the lower levels until it changes at the highest level,” Meister said in a phone interview. “I don’t see a motivation within Major League Baseball to change anything that would enhance the level of safety.”
MLB asked Meister to sit on a committee examining the growth in pitcher injuries about 18 months ago, he said. Meister says the committee never met. (MLB did not respond to a request for comment about the committee.)
Injury is among the biggest risks for youth pitchers looking for the all-too-sought-after faster fastball. Their quest to emulate their heroes, such as hard-throwing veteran starters and stars Justin Verlander and Jacob deGrom, has caused them to need the same surgeries as the pros.
Trickling down, it’s the teenager, the budding pitching prospect desperate to land his Division I scholarship, who is hurt the most. MLB teams wave around multimillion-dollar signing bonuses for the MLB Draft. Those same pitchers hurt their elbows after pushing their abilities to the extreme, calling into action surgeons such as Meister.
“It’s an even bigger problem than it appears,” said David Vaught, a baseball historian, author and history professor at Texas A&M. “This goes back into high school or before that, this notion that you throw as hard as possible. … It’s so embedded, embedded in the baseball society.”
Tommy John surgery saves careers. But as pitchers across baseball push for higher velocity, more hurlers are going under the knife — for a first time, a second time and in some instances, a third or fourth procedure.
MLB pitching velocity steadily rose from 2008 to 2023, with average fastball velocity going from 91.9 mph to 94.2. According to Meister, the total number of elbow ligament surgeries in professional baseball in 2023 was greater than in the 1990s altogether. A 2015 study revealed 56.8% of Tommy John surgeries are for athletes in the 15- to 19-year-old age range.
“It’s like the soldiers on the front lines — they come into the tent with bullet wounds,” Meister said. “You take the bullets out, you patch them back up and you send them back out there to get shot up again.”
“It’s like the soldiers on the front lines — they come into the tent with bullet wounds,” Orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister said about performing Tommy John surgeries. “You take the bullets out, you patch them back up and you send them back out there to get shot up again.”
(Tom Fox / The Dallas Morning News)
MLB released a report on pitcher injuries in December 2024. The much-anticipated study concluded that increased pitching velocity, “optimizing stuff” — which MLB defines as movement characteristics of pitches (spin, vertical movement and horizontal movement) — and pitchers using maximum effort were the “most significant” causes of the increase in arm injuries.
Meister was interviewed for the report. He knew all that years ago. He was yelling from the proverbial rooftop as MLB took more than a year (the league commissioned the study in 2023) to conclude what the doctor considered basic knowledge.
“Nothing there that hadn’t been talked about before, and no suggestion for what needs to be changed,” Meister said to The Times Wednesday.
Although pitching development labs such as Driveline Baseball and Tread Athletics provide fresh ideas, Meister said he does not entirely blame them for the epidemic.
It’s basic economics. There’s a demand for throwing harder and the industry is filling the void.
However, Meister sees the dramatic increase in velocity for youth pitchers, such as a 10-mph boost in velocity within six months, as dangerous.
“That’s called child abuse,” Meister said. “The body can’t accommodate. It just can’t. It’s like taking a Corolla and dropping a Ferrari engine in it and saying, ‘Go ahead and drive that car, take it on the track, put the gas pedal to the metal and ask for that car to hold itself together.’ It’s impossible.”
On the other end of the arm-injury epidemic is the player lying on his back, humming along to Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” as an air-cast-like device engulfs his arm, pressurizing the forearm and elbow.
The noise of the giant arm sleeve fills the room of Beimel Elite Athletics, a baseball training lab based in Torrance — owned by former MLB pitcher Joe Beimel. It generates Darth Vader-like noises, compressing up and down with a Krissshhhh Hhhwoooo… Krissshhhh Hhhwoooo.
Greg Dukeman, a Beimel Elite Athletics pitching coach whose 6-foot-8 frame towers over everyone in the facility, quipped that the elbow of the pitcher undergoing treatment was “barking.”
For professional and youth players alike, this technology, along with red-light therapy — a non-intrusive light treatment that increases cellular processes to heal tissue — and periodic ice baths, is just one example of how Beimel attempts to treat athletes as they tax their bodies, hoping to heal micro-tears in the arm without surgical intervention.
With little to no research publicly available on how high-velocity-and-movement training methods are hurting or — albeit highly unlikely — helping pitchers’ elbows and shoulders, Meister said, it’s often free rein with little — if any — guardrails.
Josh Mitchell, director of player development at Beimel’s Torrance lab, said that’s not exactly the case in their baseball performance program. Beimel will only work with youth athletes who are ready to take the next step, he said.
“You got the 9- and 10-year-olds, they’re not ready yet,” Mitchell said. “The 13- and 14-year-olds, before they graduate out of the youth and into our elite program, we’ll introduce the [velocity] training because they’re going to get it way more in that next phase.”
Beimel uses motion capture to provide pitching feedback, and uses health technology that coincides with its athletes having to self-report daily to track overexertion and determine how best to use their bodies.
Their goal is to provide as much support to their athletes as possible, using their facilities as a gym, baseball lab and pseudo health clinic.
Joe Beimel pitched for eight teams, including the Dodgers, over the course of a 13-year career.
(Ted S. Warren / Associated Press)
Mitchell knows the pleasure and pain of modern-day pitching development. The Ridgway, Pa., native’s professional career was waning at the Single-A level before the Minnesota Twins acquired him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft.
The Twins, Mitchell said, embraced the cutting-edge technique of pitching velocity, seeing improvements across the board as he reached the Double-A level for the first time in his career in 2021. But Mitchell, whose bushy beard and joking personality complement a perpetually smiling visage, turned serious when explaining the end of his career.
“I’m gonna do what I know is gonna help me get bigger, stronger, faster,” said Mitchell, who jumped from throwing around 90 miles per hour to reaching as high as 98 mph on the radar gun. “And I did — to my arm’s expense, though.”
Mitchell underwent two Tommy John surgeries in less than a year and a half.
Mitchell became the wounded soldier that Meister so passionately recounted. Now, partially because of advanced training methods, youth athletes are more likely to visit that proverbial medic’s tent.
“There’s a saying around [young] baseball players that if you’re not throwing like, over 80 miles per hour and you’re not risking Tommy John, you’re not throwing hard enough,” said Daniel Acevedo, an orthopedic surgeon based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., who mostly sees youth-level athletes.
In MLB’s report, an independent pitching development coach, who was unnamed, blamed “baseball society” for creating a velocity obsession. That velocity obsession has become a career route, an industry, a success story for baseball development companies across the country.
Driveline focuses on the never-ending “how” of baseball development. How can the pitcher throw harder, with more break, or spin? And it’s not just the pitchers. How can the hitter change his swing pattern to hit the ball farther and faster? Since then, baseball players from across levels have flocked to Driveline’s facilities and those like it to learn how to improve and level up.
“Maybe five or six years ago, if you throw 90-plus, you have a shot to play beyond college,” said Dylan Gargas, Arizona pitching coordinator for Driveline Baseball. “Now that barrier to entry just keeps getting higher and higher because guys throw harder.”
MLB players have even ditched their clubs midseason in hopes to unlock something to improve their pitching repertoire. Boston Red Sox right-handed pitcher Walker Buehler left the Dodgers last season to test himself at the Cressey Sports Performance training center near Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., before returning to eventually pitch the final out of the 2024 World Series.
Driveline is not alone.
Ben Brewster, co-founder of Tread Athletics, another baseball development company based in North Carolina, said high-school-aged players have been attracted to his performance facility because they see the results that MLB players and teammates achieve after continued training sessions.
Tread Athletics claims to have a role in more than 250 combined MLB draft picks or free agent signings, and says it has helped more than 1,000 high school players earn college opportunities.
Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans achieved a 4.4-mph increase from 2022 to 2023, the largest in MLB that year. With the velocity increase after his work at Tread Athletics, Ragans went from a league-average relief pitcher to a postseason ace in less than a year.
Kansas City Royals left-hander Cole Ragans achieved a 4.4-mph increase from 2022 to 2023, the largest in MLB that year, after his work with Tread Athletics.
(Charlie Riedel / Associated Press)
So what makes Ragans’ development different from that of a teenage prospect reaching out to Tread Athletics?
“Ragans still could go from 92-94 miles per hour to 96 to 101,” Brewster said. “He still has room, but relatively speaking, he was a lot closer to his potential than, like, a random 15-year-old kid throwing 73 miles per hour.”
Meister knows Ragans well. When the southpaw was a member of the Rangers’ organization, the orthopedic surgeon performed Tommy John surgery on Ragans twice. (Ragans has also battled a rotator cuff strain this season and has been out since early June.)
“These velocities and these spin rates are very worrisome,” Meister said. “And we see that in, in and of itself, just in looking at how long these Tommy John procedures last.”
Throwing hard is not an overnight experience. Brewster shared a stern warning for the pitching development process, using weightlifting as an example. He said weightlifters can try to squat 500 pounds daily without days off, or attempt to squat 500 pounds with their knees caving in and buckling because of terrible form. There’s no 100% safe way to lift 500 pounds, just like there is no fail-safe way of throwing 100 mph. There’s always risk. It’s all in the form. Lifting is a science, and so is pitching — finding the safest way to train to increase velocity without injury.
“The responsible way to squat 500 pounds would be going up in weight over time, having great form and monitoring to make sure you’re not going too heavy, too soon,” Brewster said. “When it comes to pitching, you can manage workload. You can make sure that mechanically, they don’t have any glaring red flags.”
Brewster added that Tread, as of July, is actively creating its own data sets to explore how UCLs are affected by training methods, and how to use load management to skirt potential injuries.
MLB admitted to a “lack [of] comprehensive data to examine injury trends for amateur players” in its December report. It points to a lack of college data as well, where most Division I programs use such technology.
The Andrews Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Center based in Birmingham, Ala. — founded by James Andrews, the former orthopedic surgeon to the stars — provided in-house data within MLB’s report, showing that the amount of UCL surgeries conducted for high school pitchers in their clinic has risen to as high as 60% of the total since 2015, while remaining above 40% overall through 2023.
Meister said baseball development companies may look great on the periphery — sending youth players to top colleges and the professional ranks — but it’s worth noting what they aren’t sharing publicly.
“What they don’t show you is that [youth athletes] are walking into our offices, three or six months or nine months later.”
Tommy John surgery was never supposed to go this far.
It was once a cross-your-fingers-and-pray fix for a career-ending injury. Now, MLB teams cycle through as many as 40-plus pitchers a year, knowing that surgery is a phone call away.
Just ask John himself, a left-hander who never threw all that hard, only reaching the mid-80s on his sinking fastball. The soft-throwing lefty was having his best year as a Dodgers starting pitcher in 1974.
He didn’t have the strikeout acumen of teammate Andy Messersmith, or the ace makeup of future Hall of Famer Don Sutton. But what John did have was consistency. John consistently pitched late into games, and sent opposing hitters back to the dugout without reaching first base.
“The game of baseball is 27 outs,” said John, now 82. “It wasn’t about throwing hard. It’s, how do I get you out?”
He was the first to go under the knife. The first to lead pitchers through a dangerous cycle of throwing as hard as possible, knowing the safeguard is surgery.
“I threw one pitch and boom, the ligament exploded,” John said.
John’s arm injury left a sensation akin to what an amputee feels after losing a limb. In 1978, he told Sports Illustrated, “It felt as if I had left my arm someplace else.” He didn’t feel pain. He felt loss. His left arm was his career. It was the direct cause for his toeing the Dodger Stadium mound in the first place. Then, John went on to pitch another 15 years in MLB.
It’s the same loss that Hall of Fame Dodgers left-hander Sandy Koufax felt when he retired at age 30 after numerous arm injuries, which could have likely been fixed if current elbow and shoulder surgeries had existed in 1966.
It’s the same loss that Texas Rangers team physician Keith Meister sees walking daily into his office.
Today, Meister can view MRI scans of elbow tears and can tell pitchers where and how they hold the baseball. The tear patterns are emblematic of the pitches being thrown in the first place. The solution — Tommy John surgery, a once-revolutionary elbow operation — replaces a torn or partially damaged ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow with a tendon from somewhere else in the body. The operation is no quick fix. It requires a 13- to 14-month recovery period, although Meister said some pitchers may require just 12 months — and some up to 18.
Meister, who is currently tallying data and researching the issue, wants to be part of the change. Midway through an October phone interview, he bluntly stopped in his tracks and asked a question.
“What is the average length of a major-league career for a major-league pitcher?” he said.
Meister explained that the average career for an MLB pitcher is just 2.6 years. Along with numerous other interviewees, he compared the epidemic to another sport’s longevity problem: the National Football League running back.
“People say to me, ‘Well, that sounds like a running back in football,’” Meister said. “Think about potentially the money that gets saved with not having to even get to arbitration, as long as organizations feel like they can just recycle and, you know, next man up, right?”
Orthopedic surgeon Keith Meister, in his TMI Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery office in Arlington, Texas, in 2024, has advocated for changes to mitigate pitching injuries.
(Tom Fox / The Dallas Morning News)
Financial ramifications play close to home between pitchers and running backs as well. Lower durability and impact have led to decreasing running-back salaries. If pitchers continue to have shorter careers, as Meister puts it, MLB franchises might be happy to cycle through minimum-salary pitchers instead of shelling out large salaries for players who remain on the injured list rather than in the bullpen.
The Dodgers and the Tampa Bay Rays have shuffled through pitchers at league extremes over the last five years. In the modern era — since 1901 — only the Rays and Dodgers have used more than 38 pitchers in a season three times each. Tampa used 40-plus pitchers each year from 2021 to 2023.
Last year, the Dodgers used 40 pitchers. Only the Miami Marlins tasked more with 45.
The Dodgers have already used 35 pitchers this season, second-most in baseball. The Rays tallied just 30 in 2024 and have dispatched just 23 on the mound so far this season. What gives?
Meister says the Rays may have changed their pitcher philosophy. Early proponents of sweepers and other high-movement pitches, the Rays now rank near the bottom of the league (29th with just 284 thrown) in sweeper usage entering Saturday’s action, according to Baseball Savant. Two years ago, the Rays threw the seventh most.
Tampa is rising to the top of MLB in two-seam fastball usage, Meister said, a pitch he says creates potentially much less stress on the elbow. Their starting pitchers are second in baseball in the number of innings, and they’ve used just six starting pitchers all season.
“It’s equated to endurance for their pitchers, because you know why? They’re healthy, they’re able to pitch, they’re able to post and they’re able to go deeper into games,” Meister said. “Maybe teams will see this and they’ll be like, ‘Wait a minute, look what these guys won with. Look how they won. We don’t need to do all this crap anymore.’”
The Dodgers, on the other hand, rank ninth in sweeper usage (1,280 thrown through Friday) and have used 16 starting pitchers (14 in traditional starting roles). Meanwhile, their starting pitchers have compiled the fewest innings in MLB. Rob Hill, the Dodgers’ director of pitching, began his career at Driveline Baseball. The Dodgers hired him in 2020. Since then, the franchise has churned out top pitching prospect after top pitching prospect, many of whom throw devastating sweepers and change-ups.
As of Saturday, the Dodgers have 10 pitchers on the injured list, six of whom underwent an elbow or shoulder operation — and since 2021, the team leads MLB in injury list stints for pitchers.
“There are only probably two teams in baseball that can just sit there and say, ‘Well, if I get 15 to 20 starts out of my starting pitchers, it doesn’t matter, because I’ll replace them with somebody else I can buy,’” Meister said. “That’s the Yankees and the Dodgers.”
He continued: “Everybody else, they’ve got to figure out, wait a minute, this isn’t working, and we need to preserve our commodity, our pitchers.”
Outside of organizational strategy changes, like the Rays have made, Meister has expressed rule changes to MLB. He’s suggested rethinking how the foul ball works or toying with the pitch clock to give a slightly longer break to pitchers. He said pitchers don’t get a break on the field the same way hitters do in the batter’s box.
“Part of the problem here is that a hitter has an ability to step out of the box and take a timeout,” Meister said. “He has to go cover a foul ball and run over to first base and run back to the mound. He should have an opportunity take a break and take a blow.”
Meister hopes to discuss reintroducing “tack” — a banned sticky substance that helps a pitcher’s grip on the ball — to the rulebook, something that pitchers such as Max Scherzer and Tyler Glasnow have called a factor in injuries. Meister has fellow leading experts on his side too.
“Myself and Dr. [Neal] ElAttrache are very good friends, and we talk at length about this,” said Meister.
Meister explained that the lack of stickiness on the baseball causes pitchers to squeeze the ball as hard as possible. The “death grip on the ball,” Meister said, causes the muscles on the inner side of the elbow to contract in the arm and then extend when the ball is released. The extension of the inner elbow muscles is called an eccentric load, which can create injury patterns.
The harder the grip, the more violent the eccentric load becomes when a sweeper pitch, for example, is thrown, he said.
“Just let guys use a little bit of pine tar on their fingertips,” Meister said, adding that the pitchers already have to adjust to an inconsistent baseball, one that changes from season to season. “Not, put it on the baseball, not glob the baseball with it, but put a little pine tar on their fingertips and give them a little better adherence to the baseball.”
According to the New Yorker, MLB is exploring heavier or larger baseballs to slow pitchers’ arm movements, potentially reducing strain on the UCL during maximum-effort pitches.
Meister, however, said there does not seem to be a sense of urgency to fix the game, with a years-long process to make any fixes.
In short, Meister is ready to try anything.
For a man who has made a career off baseball players nervously sitting in his office waiting room, awaiting news that could alter their careers forever, Meister wants MLB to help him stop players from ever scheduling that first appointment.
“To me, it’s not about the surgery any more as much as it is, what can we do to prevent, and what can we do to alter, the approach that the game now takes?” Meister said.
Bridgette Covelli arrived near Los Angeles City Hall for last Saturday’s “No Kings” festivities to find what she described as a peaceful scene: people chanting, dancing, holding signs. No one was arguing with the police, as far as she could tell.
Enforcement of the city’s curfew wouldn’t begin for hours. But seemingly out of nowhere, Covelli said, officers began to fire rubber bullets and launch smoke bombs into the crowd, which had gathered to protest the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.
“No dispersal order. Nothing at all,” she said. “We were doing everything right. There was no aggression toward them.”
Covelli, 23, grabbed an electric bike and turned up 3rd Street, where another line of police blocked parts of the roadway. She felt a shock of pain in her arm as she fell from the bike and crashed to the sidewalk.
In a daze, she realized she was bleeding after being struck by a hard-foam projectile shot by an unidentified LAPD officer.
The young tattoo artist was hospitalized with injuries that included a fractured forearm, which has left her unable to work.
“I haven’t been able to draw. I can’t even brush my teeth correctly,” she said.
Bridgette Covelli says she was shot with a less-lethal round by law enforcement last week during the ‘No Kings Day’ protest in downtown Los Angeles, which resulted in a fractured arm that has put her out of work as a tattoo artist.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
She is among the demonstrators and journalists hurt this month after being targeted by LAPD officers with foam projectiles, tear gas, flash-bang grenades and paintball-like weapons that waft pepper spray into the air.
Despite years of costly lawsuits, oversight measures and promises by leaders to rein in indiscriminate use of force during protests, the LAPD once again faces sharp criticism and litigation over tactics used during the past two weeks.
In a news conference at police headquarters last week, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell promised “a comprehensive review when this is all done,” while also defending officers he said were dealing with “a very chaotic, dynamic situation.”
Police officials said force was used only after a group of agitators began pelting officers with bottles, fireworks and other objects. At least a dozen police injuries occurred during confrontations, including one instance in which a protester drove a motorcycle into a line of officers. L.A. County prosecutors have charged several defendants with assault for attacks on law enforcement.
Behind the scenes, according to communications reviewed by The Times and multiple sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, tensions sometimes ran high between LAPD commanders and City Hall officials, who pushed for restraint in the early hours of the protests downtown.
Bridgette Covelli holds a 40mm foam round like the type fired by Los Angeles police during a protest she and thousands of others attended last weekend in opposition to the Trump administration’s policies.
(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)
On June 6 — the Friday that the demonstrations began — communication records show Mayor Karen Bass made calls to LAPD Capt. Raul Jovel, the incident commander, and to McDonnell. In the days that followed, sources said Bass or members of her senior staff were a constant presence at a command post in Elysian Park, from where local and federal officials were monitoring the on-the-ground developments.
Some LAPD officials have privately grumbled about not being allowed to make arrests sooner, before protesters poured into downtown. Although mostly peaceful, a handful of those who flooded the streets vandalized shops, vehicles and other property. LAPD leaders have also pointed out improvements from past years, including restrictions on the use of bean-bag shotguns for crowd control and efforts to more quickly release people who were arrested.
But among longtime LAPD observers, the latest protest response is widely seen as another step backward. After paying out millions over the last decade for protest-related lawsuits, the city now stares down another series of expensive court battles.
“City leaders like Mayor Bass [are] conveniently saying, ‘Oh this is Trump’s fault, this is the Feds’ fault.’ No, take a look at your own force,” said longtime civil rights attorney James DeSimone, who filed several excessive force government claims against the city and the county in recent days.
A spokesperson for Bass didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
McDonnell — a member of the LAPD command staff during an aggressive police crackdown on immigrant rights demonstrators on May Day in 2007 — found himself on the defensive during an appearance before the City Council last week, when he faced questions about readiness and whether more could have been done to prevent property damage.
“We’ll look and see, are there training issues, are there tactics [issues], are there less-lethal issues that need to be addressed,” McDonnell told reporters a few days later.
One of the most potentially embarrassing incidents occurred during the “No Kings” rally Saturday, when LAPD officers could be heard on a public radio channel saying they were taking friendly fire from L.A. County sheriff’s deputies shooting less-lethal rounds.
Three LAPD sources not authorized to speak publicly confirmed the incident occurred. A spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Department said in a statement that the agency “has not received reports of any ‘friendly fire’ incidents.”
Motorists encountered mounted LAPD officers as curfew enforcement began near Temple Street on June 10.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Some protesters allege LAPD officers deliberately targeted individuals who posed no threat.
Shakeer Rahman, a civil rights attorney and community organizer with the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, said he was monitoring a demonstration snaking past LAPD headquarters on June 8 when he witnessed two colleagues who were demanding to know an officer’s badge number get shot with a 40mm less-lethal launcher at close range.
In a recording he shared of the incident, Rahman can be heard confronting the officer, who threatens to fire as he paces back and forth on an elevated platform.
“I’m gonna pop you right now, because you’re taking away my focus,” the officer is heard saying before raising his weapon over the glass partition that separated them and firing two foam rounds at Rahman, nearly striking him in his groin.
“It’s an officer who doesn’t want to be questioned and knows he can get away with firing these shots,” said Rahman, who noted a 2021 court injunction bans the use of 40mm launchers in most crowd-control situations.
Later on June 8, as clashes between officers and protesters intensified in other parts of downtown, department leaders authorized the use of tear gas against a crowd — a common practice among other agencies, but one that the LAPD hasn’t used in decades.
“There was a need under these circumstances to deploy it when officers started taking being assaulted by commercial fireworks, some of those with shrapnel in them,” McDonnell said to The Times. “It’s a different day, and we use the tools we are able to access.”
City and state leaders arguing against Trump’s deployment of soldiers to L.A. have made the case that the LAPD is better positioned to handle demonstrations than federal forces. They say local cops train regularly on tactics beneficial to crowd control, including de-escalation, and know the downtown terrain where most demonstrations occur.
Police prepare to fire less-lethal projectiles at protesters after an unlawful assembly was declared from the “No Kings” protest on Temple Street in downtown Los Angeles on June 14.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
But numerous protesters who spoke with The Times said they felt the LAPD officers were quicker to use violence than they have been at any point in recent years.
Raphael Mamoun, 36, followed the June 8 march from City Hall to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center on Alameda Street. Mamoun, who works in digital security, said his group eventually merged with other demonstrators and wound up bottlenecked by LAPD near the intersection of Temple and Alameda, where a stalemate with LAPD officers ensued.
After roughly an hour, he said, chaos erupted without warning.
“I don’t know if they made any announcement, any dispersal order, but basically you had like a line of mounted police coming behind the line of cops that were on foot and then they just started charging, moving forward super fast, pushing people, screaming at people, shooting rubber bullets,” he said.
Mamoun’s complaints echoed those of other demonstrators and observations of Times reporters at multiple protest scenes throughout the week. LAPD dispersal orders were sometimes only audible when delivered from an overhead helicopter. Toward the end of Saturday’s hours-long “No Kings” protests, many demonstrators contended officers used force against crowds that had been relatively peaceful all day.
The LAPD’s use of horses has also raised widespread concern, with some protesters saying the department’s mounted unit caused injuries and confusion rather than bringing anything resembling order.
One video captured on June 8 by independent journalist Tina-Desiree Berg shows a line of officers on horseback advance into a crowd while other officers fire less-lethal rounds at protesters shielding themselves with chairs and road signs. A protester can be seen falling to the ground, seemingly injured. The mounted units continue marching forward even as the person desperately tries to roll out of the way. Several horses trample over the person’s prone body before officers arrest them.
At other scenes, mounted officers were weaving through traffic and running up alongside vehicles that were not involved with the demonstrations. In one incident on June 10, a Times reporter saw a mounted officer smashing the roof of a car repeatedly with a wooden stick.
“It just seems like they are doing whatever the hell they want to get protesters, and injure protesters,” Mamoun said.
Protesters were pushed back by LAPD officers on Broadway during the “No Kings Day” protest downtown.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
Audrey Knox, 32, a screenwriter and teacher, was also marching with the City Hall group on June 8. She stopped to watch a tense skirmish near the Grand Park Metro stop when officers began firing projectiles into the crowd.
Some protesters said officers fired less-lethal rounds into groups of people in response to being hit with flying objects. Although she said she was well off to the side, she was still struck in the head by one of the hard-foam rounds.
Other demonstrators helped her get to a hospital, where Knox said she received five staples to close her head wound. In a follow-up later in the week, a doctor said she had post-concussion symptoms. The incident has made her hesitant to demonstrate again, despite her utter disgust for the Trump administration’s actions in Los Angeles.
“It just doesn’t seem smart to go back out because even when you think you’re in a low-risk situation, that apparently is not the case,” she said. “I feel like my freedom of speech was directly attacked, intentionally.”
Times staff writers Julia Wick, Connor Sheets and Richard Winton contributed to this report.
Ange Postecoglou has signalled he will rest key players when Tottenham play Aston Villa on Friday as he “can’t afford to lose another” to injury with the Europa League final less than a week away.
Midfielder Dejan Kulusevski has become the latest first-team regular to suffer an injury that will rule him out of Wednesday’s final in Bilbao against Manchester United.
Fellow midfielders Lucas Bergvall and James Maddison are both also set to miss the final, while defender Radu Dragusin is a long-term injury absentee after suffering a serious knee injury in February.
Head coach Postecoglou rested several players against Crystal Palace last weekend.
Plans to field his strongest side against Villa to “sharpen up” for the Bilbao trip may now have to be scrapped.
“The reality of our existence at the moment is we can’t lose another player to an injury,” Postecoglou said. “It’s just too finely balanced for us considering what’s at stake.
“Look, in a normal world you use this to be sharpening up, but we’re not living in a normal world.
“Even with the best planning we’re still getting hit with these setbacks. From my perspective I’ve got to take that into account when considering the [Aston Villa] game.”
He may take the opportunity to try new combinations in midfield.
“We’ve always had to try to find creative ways to cover the absences we’ve had and we’ll find a way to do that again,” Postecoglou said.
“There’s obviously a few players who will play [on Friday] who haven’t played regularly or a lot lately who will get an opportunity.”
Spurs are 17th in the Premier League table – one place above the relegation zone but out of danger, and one behind United in 16th.
Both Europa League final sides have endured dismal domestic league campaigns but the winner next Wednesday will qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Tottenham have not won a trophy since lifting the League Cup in 2008.
