At least one journalist was hospitalized after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were seen cursing out, grabbing and shoving reporters on a public elevator.
According to amNewYork, ICE agents were apprehending a suspected immigrant inside the elevator at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday when the incident occurred.
Dean Moses, the police bureau chief of amNewYork, was reportedly grabbed by agents as he attempted to photograph them.
According to Moses, ICE agents followed a woman into an elevator on the 12th floor of the building.
"A couple of seconds after she goes into the elevator, two ICE agents go in after her," he recalled. "They never identified themselves, they didn't ask for her papers or her ID."
"I walked into the elevator behind them, and they started screaming at me, 'Get the f–k out," he continued. "Then they pushed me, grabbed me by my arms, and started pulling me out of the elevator. I tried to hold on, but I got shoved out."
Another ICE agent shoved Associated Press freelancer Olga Fedorova to the floor. L. Vural Elibol of the Anadolu Agency was seriously injured after hitting the back of his head on the floor, amNewYork reported.
"He was semiconscious, but he didn't move from the position for 35 to 40 minutes," Moses remarked.
Elibol was taken to a hospital after the Department of Homeland Security called for medical assistance. He was expected to recover.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander noted that the attack resembled his arrest at the same facility in June.
"Another violent attack by an ICE officer on a civilian at 26 Federal Plaza—this time on a journalist, who had to be carried out on [a] stretcher," he explained in a post on X. "Another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy."
ICE later claimed the journalists were "obstructing operations."