Good Morning Britain star reveals painful injury after ‘rubber bullet hits him’ at LA protests

Good Morning Britain star Noel Phillips was shot with a rubber bullet just before presenting from the LA protests.

The North America Correspondent for the ITV show revealed on air this morning that just before he came onto air on Monday morning, he was shot by police.

Speaking to hosts Susanna Reid and Richard Madeley, he said: ‘Susanna and Richard, just 10 minutes before coming on air yesterday, I was on the floor talking to several protesters.

‘I was on the floor because it was the best place to be, given the fact that the situation around us was so volatile, officers were obviously chasing protestors on the streets,’ he told the presenters.

He then revealed he was shot with a rubber bullet and sustained an injury that had to be treated by doctors.

‘As I was laying on the floor, I felt as though an enormous tonne of bricks had fallen on my arm. I realised, within about 20 to 30 seconds, that a rubber bullet had grazed the top layer of my skin and had caused a bit of injury.

‘My arm was swollen, I went to the doctors, got it checked out, it wasn’t broken at all. But, it was swollen, it still is swollen, and still is, it’s in a bandage at the moment,’ he said.

Noel added that his injury and the chaos on the streets highlighted the unpredictable nature of the streets of LA, which he said some were comparing to a country at war a the moment.

‘It gives you a sense of how unpredictable things are here, police don’t seem to care if you’re a journalist, whether you’re a resident or a protester in the street.’

Noel then held up some of the rubber bullets, claiming they were littered across the floor in the area, and he had been on the streets reporting for 13 hours.

The protests began on Friday when ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) carried out raids in the area with a large Latino population, making many arrests. ICE reportedly arrested 239 undocumented immigrants during a week-long operation in Los Angeles.

Although the protests and demonstrations began peacefully, things took a turn and self-driving cars were set alight, a major motorway was shut down, and there were reports of looting.

President Donald Trump then sent hundreds of Marines in temporarily on Monday, with thousands more National Guard troops set to arrive in LA.

Officials have claimed that after four days of protests, law enforcement officers are set to double from Tuesday.

Richard then asked the reporter if he believed he was hit accidentally in a crossfire, or whether he was deliberately targeted because he was a journalist with cameras.

‘I’ve spoken to individuals, journalists in particular who feel as though the police, their tactics, are not taking those of us who are here trying to tell the story, seriously.

‘There are people who believe that the police are deliberately targeting them.’

He added diplomatically that while he can’t say he was targeted, he wasn’t a threat at all to police officers.

‘I can’t say from my experience that I believe I was deliberately targeted. I was laying on the floor, I was not a threat to the officers. The people that I was with, we were all laying on the floor and suddenly we just had one of these [a rubber bullet] bang into my arm.

He then spoke about the damage the rubber bullets are capable of inflicting: ‘If this was fired at me at close range, I think there would have been some considerable damage.’

Good Morning Britain is on ITV and ITVX on weekdays from 6am.

Metro has reached out to the Los Angeles Police Department for comment.

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