Anti-ICE Rioter Caught Hurling Rocks at Agents Learns Fate
A California man caught on video hurling large rocks at federal immigration officers during violent unrest in the Los Angeles area has been sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Elpidio Reyna, 42, of Compton, received the 36-month sentence Friday after pleading guilty to assaulting a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon and causing bodily injury.
U.S. District Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha imposed the sentence. Reyna has remained in federal custody since July 2025.
The attack occurred on June 7, 2025, as federal officers conducted an immigration-enforcement operation near a Home Depot in Paramount, California.
Demonstrators had gathered in opposition to the enforcement activity, but parts of the protest escalated into violence.
According to Reyna’s plea agreement, he deliberately threw rocks at a convoy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicles traveling through the area.
One rock struck a government vehicle with sufficient force to shatter its glass, leaving a federal officer with a cut on the forehead.
Prosecutors said Reyna also set objects on fire in the street during the unrest.
Footage recorded at the scene showed a helmeted man standing near the roadway and repeatedly throwing large objects at passing federal vehicles.
Reyna pleaded guilty in February to one felony count of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon resulting in bodily injury. The offense carried a maximum possible punishment of 20 years behind bars.
Federal prosecutors emphasized that Reyna’s conduct bore no resemblance to constitutionally protected peaceful protest.
“Disagreeing with laws passed by Congress does not give you a right to assault federal officers,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli.
“This defendant thought he would go unpunished for throwing large rocks at law enforcement. Instead, he’ll be serving time in federal prison, where he can reflect on his poor decision,” he added.
Prosecutors also rejected Reyna’s attempt to characterize his conduct as “sudden and emotional and fueled by alcohol” and opposition to federal immigration policy.
Political anger, they argued, cannot excuse deliberately attacking law-enforcement officers entrusted with carrying out federal law.
The Paramount confrontation was part of a broader wave of demonstrations that erupted throughout Los Angeles County in June 2025 after federal authorities intensified immigration-enforcement operations.
Although many demonstrators remained peaceful, other participants allegedly attacked officers with rocks, fireworks, incendiary devices and additional objects. Federal prosecutors subsequently brought criminal charges against several individuals accused of participating in the violence.
The disorder spread to downtown Los Angeles the next day, where protesters clashed with California Highway Patrol officers near the 101 Freeway. Vehicles were damaged, and one patrol vehicle was set ablaze.
Federal authorities have since secured multiple guilty pleas and prison sentences arising from those confrontations.
In a separate prosecution, a Westlake man received a 37-month prison sentence in July after admitting that he threw rocks and burning debris at CHP officers during the downtown unrest.
Reyna’s case involved a direct, documented attack on federal immigration personnel during the earlier violence in Paramount. The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Border Patrol jointly investigated the offense.
His three-year sentence resolves one of the most visible prosecutions stemming from the 2025 anti-immigration-enforcement unrest, largely because footage of the assault circulated widely online.
The Justice Department has consistently drawn a clear line between protected political expression and criminal violence. Americans possess a constitutional right to protest government policy, but that right does not include attacking officers, destroying vehicles or setting fires in public streets.
Reyna was not prosecuted for opposing immigration enforcement. He was prosecuted for intentionally weaponizing a rock against federal officers and injuring one of them—and he will now spend three years in federal prison for that decision.