CNN reporter Jason Carroll was on air Monday night, covering protests in Los Angeles, when police suddenly detained him and escorted him away — live, in front of viewers.
Carroll had just wrapped a report for Laura Coates Live on CNN. But just moments later, something changed on the ground. Back in the studio, Coates interrupted her guest mid-sentence.
“Wait one second, John,” she said. “Hold on. I wanna– Jason, what’s going on? I hear you. Am I seeing Jason Carroll being– what happened? Jason?”
“I am being detained,” Carroll replied. “I’m being detained, Laura.”
The camera showed police speaking with him. Carroll tried to clarify the situation with the officers.
“I’m not being arrested, correct, officers?” he asked.
One officer shot back: “Did you hear what he told you?”
“No,” Carroll said.
“We’re letting you go, but you can’t come back,” the officer replied. “Because then if you come back in, then you go. Ok, please?”
“Ok, thank you, officer,” Carroll responded.
Carroll then tried to explain what happened as the broadcast continued.
“If you guys can still hear me, what happened was, I was–” he started, before a man nearby stepped in.
“I’m Chris with The New York Times,” the man said. “We got video of you guys. If you need it later, call The New York Times.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that,” Carroll answered, then turned back to Coates.
“So here’s what happened, Laura,” he said. “I was called over, and the officer told me to put my hands behind my back. I said, ‘Am I being arrested?’ He said, ‘You are being detained.’ I was walked out of the area. They took down my information.”
Then his microphone cut out.
The moment came as tensions rise across Los Angeles, with protests intensifying after ICE raids in the city’s garment district and outside a Home Depot — both targeting undocumented workers. These are part of President Donald Trump’s national deportation push.
Police say it’s becoming harder to tell who’s press and who’s provoking violence at protests.
“You have anarchist groups and agitators who show up and say, ‘Well, I have a blog, so therefore I’m press,’” said CNN’s John Miller, a former law enforcement official. “Even though I’ve been throwing bottles and screaming epithets… I want to be treated as media.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom has pushed back hard against Trump’s federal response. The administration has deployed 4,000 National Guard soldiers over his objections. California has filed a lawsuit to try to stop it.
Watch the clip below from CNN.
CNN reporter Jason Carroll was detained, then told to leave and never return or face arrest. This was while broadcasting live during a protest, not a riot. pic.twitter.com/2kSyJzg9JP
— WarMonitor 🇺🇲🇺🇦 (@TheWarMonitor) June 10, 2025
