A photojournalist with Turkey’s Anadolu Agency, L. Vural Elibol, was taken out on a stretcher and hospitalized on Tuesday, September 30, after a confrontation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on the 12th floor of 26 Federal Plaza.
The incident occurred around 10:15 a.m. as reporters were documenting ongoing arrests, according to images and eyewitness accounts from the scene. This sets the stage for what unfolded moments later.
Video shot by photojournalists in the hallway and at the elevator bank shows two women entering an elevator, followed by plainclothes ICE agents wearing masks that obscured their faces. amNewYork’s police bureau chief, Dean Moses, tried to step in behind them when agents grabbed him and pulled him back. An agent shouted from inside the elevator, “Get out of the fucking elevator,” as Documented reported.
Outside the elevator, freelance photojournalist Olga Fedorova (on assignment for the Associated Press) was thrown to the floor. Her fall knocked Elibol to the ground; he hit his head on the tile. “People immediately started screaming because he was seriously injured,” Moses told amNewYork. “He was semiconscious, but he didn’t move for 35 to 40 minutes.” Photos published by Documented show Elibol lying with his eyes rolled back, then being taken out on a stretcher with a neck brace as police looked on.
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin offered a different account, saying “officers were swarmed by agitators and members of the press, which obstructed operations” to arrest “an illegal alien from Peru.” She added: “Officers repeatedly told the crowd of agitators and journalists to get back, move, and get out of the elevator.” McLaughlin condemned “rioters and sanctuary politicians who encourage individuals to interfere with arrests,” saying they “are actively creating hostile environments that put officers, detainees and the public in harm’s way.”
Journalists on scene disputed that characterization. Moses told amNewYork there were “no agitators or any members of the press preventing them from doing anything.” Fedorova told the AP that agents had not marked off a media perimeter or made clear that an arrest was underway as they entered the elevator: “If they tell us to get out, to not cross a certain line, we follow their orders. In this case, it was not clear to anyone that this was a detention at all.” (Moses’s account was also cited by Documented.)
A public building turned flashpoint
26 Federal Plaza is a public federal building hosting immigration appointments and proceedings. Tuesday’s episode came five days after another video showed a federal officer shoving an Ecuadorian woman against a wall as she pleaded for her detained husband. That officer was suspended and then reinstated on Monday, local outlets reported.
Against that backdrop, Tuesday’s incident renewed criticism of masked, plainclothes agent operations amid vague public and press guidance on access. Building on earlier reports, Fedorova highlighted the absence of advance instructions about restricted areas or a “do-not-cross” line. Footage shows a rapid sequence: an attempt to enter the elevator, a forceful pullback, a photographer’s fall, and a journalist hitting his head.
Reactions poured in on X (formerly Twitter). City Comptroller Brad Lander wrote: “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 called it “another attack on the First Amendment, our neighbors, and our democracy.”
New York Governor Kathy Hochul condemned the agents’ conduct: “This abuse of law-abiding immigrants and the reporters telling their stories must end.” She added, “What the hell are we doing here?”
