NYPD officer fires gun while clearing Columbia building

By Ryan Pearson, Julie Watson, Christopher L. Keller and Carolyn Thompson | Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A police officer who was helping evacuate protesters from a Columbia University administration building earlier this week fired his weapon inside the lobby, a spokesperson confirmed Thursday from the office of District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

No one was injured, according to spokesman Doug Cohen, who said there were other officers but no students in the immediate vicinity. He said Bragg’s office is conducting a review.

He did not provide additional details about the incident, which was first reported by media outlet The City.

The New York Police Department did not immediately respond to The Associated Press’ request for comment.

The shooting occurred as police stormed Hamilton Hall Tuesday evening. Pro-Palestinian protesters had been barricaded inside for more than 20 hours. The video showed officers carrying zip ties and riot shields passing through a second-story window. Police had said protesters inside offered no substantial resistance.

More than 100 protesters were arrested during the crackdown. They are among more than 2,000 people who have been arrested in recent weeks during pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the United States, according to an Associated Press tally released Thursday.

Columbia protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, strengthening their presence on campus from a tent encampment that had been there since April 17. This encampment was one of the first on college campuses.

Despite more than 100 arrests the next day and the removal of tents, the demonstrators defied threats of suspension to return to the camp. They then escalated their protest by occupying Hamilton Hall, an administration building that was also seized in 1968 by students protesting racism and the Vietnam War.

Beyond Columbia’s New York campus, protests and arrests took place in almost every corner of the country. Over the past 24 hours, they drew the most attention at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes unfolded early Thursday as police in riot gear surged into a crowd of protesters.

Hundreds of protesters at UCLA defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash bangs to disperse the crowd.

At least 200 people were arrested, the sergeant said. Alejandro Rubio of the California Highway Patrol, citing data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

According to the university, 300 other people voluntarily left the camp throughout the hours-long standoff, with some leaving the camp with their hands on their heads in peaceful surrender. Others fled as baton-wielding officers rushed into hordes of more than 1,000 people.

Later Thursday morning, workers removed the barricades and dismantled the protesters’ fortified encampment. Bulldozers picked up bags of garbage and tents. Royce Hall was covered in graffiti.
Encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or with companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread to campuses across the country in a student movement unprecedented this century.

Protests began at Columbia University on April 17, with students calling for an end to the war between Israel and Hamas, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry . Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took around 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel on October 7.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in a statement Thursday that the camp had become “a hotbed of serious violence as well as tremendous disruption.” He said days of clashes between protesters and counter-protesters put people on campus in danger, students were unable to get to class, buildings had to be closed and classes were closed. been canceled.

“This past week has been one of the most painful times our UCLA community has ever experienced,” he said. “It has shattered our sense of unity and frayed our bonds of trust, and will surely leave a scar on campus.” »

Police officers in riot gear flocked to the UCLA campus by the hundreds early Thursday. Wearing face shields and protective vests, they brandished their batons to separate themselves from the protesters, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.

For hours, police warned over loudspeakers that there would be arrests if the crowd did not disperse. Protesters and police jostled and scuffled. Police helicopters flew overhead and the sound of flash bangs pierced the air. Police removed the demonstrators’ helmets and goggles during their arrest.

Police methodically destroyed the encampment’s barricade made of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then tore down awnings and tents.

The presence of law enforcement and continued warnings contrasted with the scene Tuesday evening, when counterprotesters attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment. Campus administrators and police did not intervene or call for reinforcements for hours. No one was arrested, but at least 15 protesters were injured.

The delayed response drew criticism from political leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and officials promised an independent review.

Ariel Dardashti, a UCLA graduate majoring in global studies and sociology, said no student should feel unsafe on campus.

“It should not get to the point where students are being arrested,” Dardashti said on campus Thursday.

Dardashti said he could understand the trauma suffered by Palestinians.

“When my father was fleeing Iran, he prayed that his children would not face anti-Semitism,” Dardashti said. “We are afraid of having to flee again, like our parents did. »

Iranian state television broadcast live footage of the police action at UCLA, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera. Live footage from Los Angeles was also broadcast on Israeli television networks.

Israel has called the protests anti-Semitic, while critics of Israel say it is using the allegations to silence opposition. Although some demonstrators were filmed making anti-Semitic remarks or violent threats, the protest’s organizers — some of whom are Jewish — call it a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the right of students to peacefully protest but denounced the disorder of recent days.

Republican leaders in California blasted university administrations for failing to protect Jewish students and allowing protests to degenerate into “anarchy and violence.” They called for the firing of leaders at UCLA and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, and pushed for a proposal to cut the salaries of university administrators.

“We have a lot of people at these universities making six-figure salaries and they’ve been sitting idly by and doing nothing,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters.

Meanwhile, protest encampments in schools across the United States have been evacuated by police – leading to further arrests – or closed voluntarily.

An Illinois university professor said he suffered several broken ribs and a broken hand during a pro-Palestinian protest Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis.