A California protester has been left blind in one eye in a string of violent run-ins with federal agents

A 21-year-old college student who said he was blinded in one eye after being shot by a federal officer during a protest in Southern California now faces a very different life.

Cayden Rumler said in an interview that he was in excruciating pain and underwent six-hour surgery on his left eye after being injured during a Jan. 9 protest in Minneapolis over the shooting death of a woman by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer. Rumler said he has no vision and can no longer drive. A piece of metal and a nickel-sized piece of plastic were lodged in his skull, his lawyer said, and he is considering suing.

“It’s going to affect every aspect of my life,” said Rumler, who wants to pursue a career in forestry.

A second protester at the same protest outside the federal immigration building in Orange County told the Los Angeles Times that he, too, was blinded in one eye by a projectile fired by federal agents. Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Briton, said he was standing on the steps outside the immigration building when he was hit in the face.

“I remember hitting the ground and feeling like my eyes exploded in my head,” Rodriguez told the newspaper.

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions from The Associated Press about what type of projectile was used. The agency’s assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said in an emailed statement this week that the protesters were violent and that two officers were injured but did not specify the extent of their injuries. DHS said one protester was taken to the hospital with cuts. McLaughlin confirmed to the Times that it was Rummler’s reference and called his injury claims “absurd.”

Rumler is charged with a misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. One of his fellow protesters was jailed for several days and charged with assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a federal officer.

Rumler’s attorney, John Washington, said the doctors want to know if the materials in the projectile could be toxic but have been unable to get an answer from DHS. Washington said based on preliminary investigations, it believed it was a pepper spray capsule made of metal and plastic.

The injuries in California are the latest in a series of increasingly violent clashes between federal agents and community members protesting the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

Federal immigration agents stationed in Minneapolis have used aggressive crowd-control tactics that have become a major concern since the fatal shooting of Renee Goode.

In Santa Ana, California, hundreds of people took to the streets to protest Goode’s killing on January 9. A small group later gathered outside the federal immigration building, shouting profanities through megaphones about ICE, according to video taken by OC Hawk, a group that films breaking news in Orange County.

The video shows a handful of officers in riot gear standing guard and urging protesters to back off. An orange cone is later seen rolling into the plaza outside the building, and officers begin firing crowd-control projectiles as they walk toward the crowd.

In the video, an officer is seen grabbing a protester by the arm and Ramler and a few others yelling in response. An officer then fires a crowd-control weapon, striking Rummler several feet away. Rummler falls to the floor holding his face, and an officer grabs him by the shirt and pulls him off the floor and back toward the building, the video shows. Later, the video shows him handcuffed face down on the floor.

Rumler said he joined the protests against immigration officials because he couldn’t bear to see families torn from their homes. He said he would do it again despite the injury.

“I refuse to sit idly by and watch that happen, and in 50 years, I’m going to regret not trying to make a change,” he said.

Washington, a civil rights attorney, said his client may have been murdered.

“Any officer with even the most basic training knows you never shoot somebody with it, let alone at point-blank range, and that’s because it’s a lethal weapon when used, and it almost was,” Washington said.

Jeffrey Alpert, a professor of criminology and criminal justice at the University of South Carolina, said a thorough investigation is needed into why the high level of force was used in the situation.

“I don’t know of any missile where you train to fire at that close a range,” Alpert said.