CJ Johnson was just trying to get to his car when he encountered a line of Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers near the corner of Spring Street and Temple Street in front of City Hall, firing less-lethal munitions at a group of protesters.
Johnson wasn’t in Downtown that day to march in the No Kings Day demonstration that attracted tens of thousands of protesters; he had just finished helping a friend with some skateboard videography.
After Johnson turned around to try to find another way to his car, he was shot in his left hand just above his wrist.
“[They] literally shot me in my hand while my back was turned," Johnson told L.A. TACO during a June interview.
After being hit, Johnson dropped his skateboard, then picked it up and ran towards the first street medic that he saw.
There was “blood everywhere,” he recalled. “On my shirt, on my pants, on my body, on my skateboard.”