Caden Rumbler, a 21-year-old protester shot in the face by federal officers during Minnesota demonstrations against immigration enforcement, now faces permanent blindness in one eye. The segment details how agents dragged his friend while Rumbler was hit near his left eye, surviving despite shards near his artery and skull. While hosts debate the unjustifiability of facial shots versus limb targeting, they speculate on Rumbler's gender identity and label activists as "crazy" or "communist." Ultimately, the discussion highlights the extreme use of force against political dissenters and the resulting medical crisis requiring a GoFundMe for expenses. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Non-Lethal Device Hits Face00:09:54
All right, so this guy was protesting.
He effed around and found out.
He was protesting what happened to Renee Good in Orange County, California.
And they shot him in the face with a non-lethal device.
This eye looks crazy.
Yeah, he got interviewed by the local news station.
Check out what he had to say.
Here at home, a protester blinded by a non-lethal round fired near his face is speaking out about his violent encounter with a federal agent in Santa Ana.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
It's non-lethal.
The 21-year-old was hit while protesting the shooting of Renee Goode in Minnesota.
He survived the encounter, but says that his life will never be the same.
And KTLA's Chris Wolfe spoke to Caden in a story you'll see only on five.
How did it feel?
I remember when it hit me, I kind of didn't realize what happened, really.
I remember falling to my knees and I remember covering my head and it was just like this pressure and this ringing in my ear.
I had so much adrenaline.
Doesn't he sound like a female to start taking hormones or something?
Yeah, that's what I was thinking.
Well, his eye looked just like the LGBTQ flag with all them different colors.
Look at all them colors.
That's an LGBTQ flag right there on his face.
His fingers are painted.
Yeah.
Hey, he might be trans.
A young life permanently reshaped following an explosive encounter during a protest nearly one week earlier.
21-year-old Caden Rumbler describes himself as a leftist.
Hmm.
A leftist.
Which means he's crazy.
Communist.
Anarchist.
Yeah.
Part of an activist group called Dare to Struggle, seen lighting an American flag on fire outside the federal building in Santa Ana Friday night.
Demonstrators were protesting the shooting of Renee Goode in Minnesota by an immigration and customs enforcement agent during a confrontation.
At one point, federal agents drag a participant from the crowd, and that's when Caden rushed after his friend, but was stopped almost immediately.
Shot at close range with some type of less lethal munition in the left eye.
What do you think of that?
I think that was awesome.
Obviously, he's been arrested for something, and you're trying to help him get away.
He should have never stepped forward to the officer.
Yep.
I don't think these people really understand the ramifications of their actions when they what they what they're doing.
I don't think they really grasp what they're doing.
Yeah, they are pretty stupid.
Takes a brain to do that.
They're like, you probably didn't do anything wrong, but your friend obviously did something.
That's why the officers were going to arrest him.
But you're going to go defend him.
Yeah.
I mean, what do you think you were doing?
Took one to the face.
Footage then shows an agent dragging Caden from the scene, his face covered in blood.
In fact, Caden wore the same blood-soaked clothing.
He dragged him up like a damn liar.
What?
Oh, you have a city dog.
National geographical clouds attack.
Well, you're talking about them cheetahs and stuff.
They do that.
Yeah.
How they drag off like they'll get their prey and just drag them off.
Yeah, they'll maim them.
The incapacity and did is drag him off up in a tree and eat them.
Yeah, that's like cheetahs.
Caden wore the same blood-soaked clothing from that fateful night for this interview.
This was closed and it was choking me.
And I was trying to grab at it.
And I was like, I can't breathe.
I can't breathe.
And he just kept dragging me into sale where it was on top of me and was putting my hands behind my back really aggressively and handcuffing me.
That might be a female.
But was it male?
And he was trying to transition.
And he said, you know what?
I'm going to be a man.
Yeah.
I don't know what this is.
His voice is cracking.
So I'm thinking it's a female.
But we may be totally off.
But sometimes this is a female that was transitioning.
Whatever that is, it's got an Adams apple.
Well, when you get dragged off like that, it's going to make you have an Adam's apple.
Pleading with him.
I was like, call an ambulance.
Please call an ambulance.
There's so much blood.
An ambulance did eventually.
Come after Caden says agents mocked him about the injured eye.
Will you be blind in that eye for life?
From what I've heard the doctors say and everyone else, yes, I will be blind for life.
Yeah, the eye is blue now.
You an idiot.
That's a telltale sign that you're going to be blind.
It's blue now.
Look, Renee Good lost her life trying to protect illegal immigrants.
Viciously attacked the officer with a vehicle with violence.
Look, now he's going to be blind in one eye over what?
Absolutely nothing.
Pulled a piece of plastic the size of a nickel out of my eye.
They said I had shards of metal, glass, and plastic all throughout my eye and behind my eye and in my skull.
And they also said that I had a piece of strapnel metal about a few millimeters away from my corroded artery.
And they said it was a miracle I survived because if they got any closer, if it hit that, I would have died that night.
They think this was completely unjustifiable use of force.
And the force used was as you just heard from about the injuries, was lethal force.
That's not lethal.
Lethal force would be well.
We made a joke about it.
That's non-lethal.
Well, that's a non-lethal.
It's like a paintball or something, a pepper ball, whatever.
But I think they tell the cops, don't shoot people in the face with that.
I would think.
Well, I would think to shoot him in the leg in the lowest extremity, not straight to the face.
But hey, he ran in the way.
I think he was probably, I don't think he was the intended target.
I think he was the intended target because he's running after as you just heard from me about the injuries.
He's shooting everybody.
The GoFundMe page has been set up to help Caden with medical expenses.
You can find that link on our website, ktla.com.
He's not gonna, I mean, whatever.
I think that's a female who transitioned.
Because when I was looking at his neck, I don't see much of an Adam's apple.
Yeah.
See, he's uh, see, uh, I'm gonna just say it's a heat.
Um, see, his eyes blue.
Oh, that's nice of you.
His eyes blue.
Yeah.
Junior charged officer.
He's probably gonna get something.
Like what?
Oh, he's gonna get some money.
I'd rather have both use of my eyes.
Well, he definitely earned some money.
Look at his eye.
He looks like Rocky Bow Boy after he fought damn iced tea in that movie.
Iced tea.
Not iced tea.
He didn't fight iced tea.
Iced Mr. T.
They all tease.
I said iced T was Mr. T.
Yeah, man.
These people are just getting maimed and losing their life over absolutely nothing.
Yeah.
And you're actually protesting against the Constitution.
It's not like these officers are doing anything illegally.
Yeah, they're enforcing immigration laws.
What happened?
Renee Good is unfortunate and it is a tragedy.
But she put herself in that position, just like you put yourself in that situation.
I wish both, I wish she was still alive and you still had your eye, but you put yourself in that position.
Like you may have not been doing anything, but the people that you surround yourself with, they may do something and it's something like this is going to happen.
And you can't run into his aid.
He just broke the law.
They was dragging him off like a damn line.
He was on arrest.
And you tried.
What were you trying to do?
Trying to help him get away?
I don't think he's going to get much, if anything.
Oh, man, that dude's going to get paid.
What are you talking about?
That dude is getting paid.
Here it is right here.
Dude's fitting to get paid.
Grabbed his friend.
Yep.
He assaulted.
He's resistant with violence.
He comes to his aid with that damn bullhorn.
Yeah.
And they took it as you're making an aggressive stance.
You're charging for it.
So you're going to get one to the...
He's probably aiming for your chest.
He's going to probably give you one to the chest, but he missed by.
I mean, just a hair.
If you go up and down with your muzzle on that weapon, whatever kind of weapon it is, it just goes up and inch.
It goes into your face instead of in your chest.
Yeah.
Yeah, I'm thinking that's probably because that probably shoots somebody in the face of that thing.
Yeah.
I would think so.
Remember, I remember I used to be a security professional.
I remember I got a gun permit and a baton permit.
They said, never ever.
It's not going to save you from a lawsuit if you take that baton and whack somebody upside the head.
They said go for the arms.
And legs.
The legs.
Yeah.
You can poke him in the gut if you want to.
You can jab him right in the ribs.
But they said you whack somebody upside the head and he falls and then right on the floor and that dude dies, you're going to jail.
I'm pretty sure they got those same policies with that.
What is that?
Federal officers.
I mean, what is that?
They shooting beanbags at people?
What kind of protect?
What kind of projectile is it?
Probably like paintballs or something, but fuck the paint.
Poor guy.
He did it to himself.
The Other Eye Gets Big00:00:41
Man, your eye looks crazy.
Yeah, he did it to himself.
Look how the other eyes wide open.
That's what's going to happen.
Like when you lose one eye, the other eye is going to overcompensate for not having the other eye.
So the other eye is going to get big as hell.
Remember that one woman?
Yeah.
I ain't going to tell that story.
She had something wrong with her eye, and her eye was always oozing.
And she had one good eye.
That eye looked big as hell.
She looked like Cyclops.
Because that one eye over time gets bigger because it's overcompensating.
Because it's used to have another eye.
I ain't going to even get into that.
But that's what's going to happen to you, man.
And Renee Goodman, y'all are throwing y'all's lives away over nothing.