More than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested in NYPD Columbia University raid
NEW YORK — The late-night NYPD raid of an occupied administration building at Columbia University resulted in the arrest of more than 100 pro-Palestinian protesters amid a growing debate over who was behind the violent turn of events in the weekslong campus protest.
NYPD officers, some wielding chainsaws, climbed in through windows Tuesday night to enter Columbia’s Hamilton Hall academic building after protesters barricaded doors with bicycle locks and overturned vending machines, officials said Wednesday.
Hamilton was taken over shortly after Columbia President Minouche Shafik warned students who had set up an an encampment on the school’s main lawn they’d be subject to disciplinary action if they failed to leave.
The university’s decision to bring in the NYPD was made less than 24 hours after the takeover began. Shafik has asked the NYPD to remain on campus through May 17, two days after graduation.
In an early Wednesday morning MSNBC appearance with Mayor Eric Adams, NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard said once inside Hamilton Hall, cops found protesters had barricaded doors with heavy chain-link bicycle locks.
“This is what we encountered on every door inside Hamilton Hall,” Sheppard said while holding up one of the heavy locks. “This is not what students bring to school, OK?”
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said 109 protesters in total were arrested at Columbia, about 50 of them inside the occupied Hamilton Hall. Another 173 protesters were arrested during a separate raid of a pro-Palestinian encampment on the City College campus in Harlem, where video posted to X showed officers tackling protesters to the ground before cuffing them.
Sheppard said there were no reported injuries during the clashes, though he added the NYPD is still “sorting through” those arrested.
Sheppard called the police raid of Hamilton Hall a “calm, precise operation.”
Charges protesters could face include burglary, trespassing and criminal mischief, according to police officials.
The raid sparked an ongoing debate over whether “outside agitators” were driving events on the Manhattan campus.
The mayor and members of his administration have said the escalation of pro-Palestine protests this week was spearheaded by unidentified “outside agitators,” a claim denied by student demonstration leaders.
On Wednesday, Adams said there’s evidence the demonstrators who took over Hamilton smashed security cameras and “were trained on how to barricade a location, on what type of locks to use.”
The mayor and NYPD officials declined to say how many of those arrested were “outside agitators,” citing an ongoing investigation.
