The Raid

Part a. The Events

NYPD officers clear students and faculty from the Columbia University campus after arresting protesters occupying Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, in New York City, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Elza Goffaux)

Writers: Anna Oakes, Elza Goffaux

Editors: Brendan Rose, Claire Davenport

Photos: Edward Lopez, Elza Goffaux, Emily Byrski, Francisco Kilgore, Jude Taha, Marco Postigo Storel, Sofia Mareque, Sara Selva Ortiz

Videos: Anna Oakes, Emily Byrski, Marco Postigo Storel, Samaa Khullar

Design: Emily Byrski, Marco Postigo Storel

Audio: Sara Selva Ortiz

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Before dawn, a frantic flurry of administrative emails arrived in students’ inboxes. Columbia was closed. Only students living in the central campus buildings and “essential” campus workers could enter through the single remaining access gate. Bike locks sealed the other entrances; security contractors lounged outside each entry point.

Journalists who had stayed on campus through the night began to emerge from their improvised sleeping bases under desks and on floors. A few protesters walked through the emptied tents of the encampment.

On a sunny morning between trees, two rows of smaller tents line the pathway to Hamilton Hall. In front of the building, a small group of protesters waving a Palestinian flag can vaguely be made out

Camping tents in front of Hamilton Hall hours before the NYPD raid of Columbia University's campus, New York City, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Emily Byrski)

Outside of the barricaded doors of “Hind’s Hall,” protesters slept, huddled under blankets. A few passed supplies in milk crates, attached to ropes, to occupants within. Chairs from inside the building had been stacked in heaps outside the upper windows. Banners hung from the building painted with the slogans “Liberation Education” and “Student Intifada.”

(Video by Samaa Khullar)

Two protesters with a red blanket wrapped over them lean their heads together. They both have head coverings on. The one on the right wears a keffiyeh. They look at the broken doors with furniture held together with yellow cords in front

Two protesters rest in front of the barricaded doors of Hamilton Hall the morning after protesters occupied the building at Columbia University, in New York City, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Sara Selva Ortiz)

(Video by Emily Byrski)

While the campus remained relatively quiet, outside the locked gates activity was beginning again. Protesters gathered, chanting in support of the occupiers of “Hind’s Hall.” At 7 p.m., reports began to filter in: nine police buses had parked on 111th Street, east of Morningside Park. By 8 p.m., the New York Police Department had set up a barricade on 113th Street and Broadway, and the 116th subway stop had been shut down. Access to and departure from the area around the university was blocked.

On top of an old-looking building, a lone protester waves a Palestinian flag against a clear blue sky

A protester waves the Palestinian flag from the roof of “Hind’s Hall” at Columbia University, in New York City, on April 30, 2024. (Photo by Jude Taha)

As police and detectives approached, and surveillance drones hovered above the central campus, Mayor Eric Adams held a press conference denouncing the protesters and occupation. The protest, he claimed, according to unspecified “intel,” had been “co-opted by professional outside agitators.” He said they sought to “create chaos” and “to create discord and divisiveness.” Mayor Adams encouraged parents to call their children and urge them to leave the area, saying: “We cannot and will not allow what should be a peaceful gathering to turn into a violent spectacle that serves no purpose.”

A student wearing all black and a hoodie looks at the police officers gathering outside the gate. From a window across the street, a woman takes a photo

A lone student stands watching police assemble on 114th St. behind Carman Hall at Columbia University, in New York City, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Edward Lopez)

On campus, protesters were undeterred. Dozens linked arms to create physical barricades around “Hind’s Hall.” They sang songs linked to the Torah and Civil Rights Movement with the lyrics: “Just like a tree that's standing by the water, we shall not be moved.”

(Video by Anna Oakes)

With riot police lining up just outside the gates, students and journalists anxiously walked around campus, trying to figure out which gate the NYPD would enter from. Minutes after 9 p.m., police officers stormed the campus. Hundreds of officers in riot gear entered through the South-West gates, walking in rows and moving as one entity. Some crossed into the empty encampment, while the rest headed to Hamilton Hall. Many of the officers were part of the Strategic Response Group, a squad formed in 2015 to combat terrorism. The squad has since gotten a reputation for using violence against protesters.

Police officers with NYPD enblazoned on their backs dismantle the encampment, leaning over to peer in tents and pull their stakes out of the ground. It is nighttime

(Videos by Anna Oakes and Emily Byrski)

Officers with the New York City Police Department raid the second encampment at Columbia University, in New York City, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Marco Postigo Storel)

(Videos by Samaa Khullar)

Police started pushing students and journalists away from the protesters barricaded around the hall, threatening them with arrest. The crowd facing the occupied building was also removed by the NYPD and locked inside one of the on-campus dormitories, John Jay Hall. Most of them were not residents of the building and were stranded in a narrow vestibule. 

Police lines blocked journalists and legal observers from witnessing and reporting as they began arresting protesters and blocking their way into the building.

Some journalists were kettled by police and eventually pushed off campus, where they were prevented from re-entering. The rest of the crowd was kept away by a line of police along College Walk, the main pathway that crosses Columbia's Campus.

After the journalists and legal observers were removed from the scene, the police entered Hamilton by force: videos show them grabbing, hitting, and forcefully separating protesters in the human chain in front of the building, using shields and batons. One of the protesters violently rolled down the stairs in front of the building, half-conscious. Three police officers lifted another protester who was beaten badly and was not able to walk. Protesters who were blocking another entrance at the back of the building were also violently removed by the police.

Two police officers can be seen walking towards protesters singing in front of Hamilton Hall. A Palestinian flag waves close to their faces. The name of Hamilton Hall can be seen behind them

NYPD officers push students, onlookers, and press surrounding “Hind’s Hall” as they move to clear the area to disperse and empty out the building at Columbia University, in New York City, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Jude Taha)

The squads broke the front and back doors of the building and used an armored truck fitted with a siege-type ladder to breach the second floor of the building from Amsterdam Avenue. They cut the metal bike locks with chainsaws and moved the chairs and tables protesters had piled up. The sound of flash-bags rang out as they entered the building — at least eight flash-bangs were heard that night.

One police officer was also filmed sending a text message: “ESU [Emergency Service Unit] used flash-bangs. Thought we fucking shot someone.” One officer fired a gun during the operation, which an NYPD spokesperson said was an accidental discharge.

(Video by Marco Postigo Storel)

Police in riot gear holding shields enter Hamilton Hall. The words NYPD emergency service unit are visible on their backs. They all wear helmets

NYPD officers break into doors of Hamilton Hall, occupied by pro-Palestine protesters, after removing a human chain of protesters at Columbia University, in New York City, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Elza Goffaux)

An officer in a helmet cuts a white banner that reads "student intifada" which is hung on ropes against the brick outer walls of Hamilton Hall. It is nighttime

NYPD tactical unit officers cut down the "STUDENT INTIFADA" banner hung from Columbia University's Hamilton Hall as officers slowly clear each room in the building, in New York City, on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Edward Lopez)

Of the 46 protesters who occupied Hamilton Hall and dozens of protesters in front of the doors, many described violence by the police. Besides the protester who was thrown down the staircase, others reported being kicked and stepped on by the police. Protesters reported bruises, lacerations, and fractures. The NYPD has denied that any of the protesters were injured.

While the police were conducting their operation inside Hamilton Hall, only a few protesters rallied outside of the back of the building. They were chanting towards police officers blocking the access to “Hind’s Hall” on College Walk.

A blurry photo of protesters in keffiyehs being walked off campus by the police. The skeleton poles for graduation tents, campus lawns, and tents are visible behind them in the glow of the lights on campus

The first group of student protesters led out of Hamilton Hall by police escort during the raid of the Columbia University campus, New York City, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Francisco Kilgore)

(Videos by Emily Byrski)

After everyone inside the building was arrested, the police squads started emptying campus. They pushed back the last students on College Walk and arrested a few remaining protesters. Students and journalists were pushed outside the University’s gate or inside Pulitzer Hall, the Journalism School’s building. The Dean of the Journalism School, Jelani Cobb, like the rest of the journalists and students, was threatened with arrest if he left the Journalism School’s building. No one could step on campus.

Some of the protesters outside the University’s gates were also arrested. Overall, 109 people were loaded into the NYPD’s buses and brought to detention.

A vivid photo of cars glowing in the dark on Amsterdam in front of a crosswalk. Police can be seen in front of NYPD vans, setting up barricades in lines

NYPD form a barricade along West 120th St. and Amsterdam Avenue as police officers descend onto Columbia University’s campus to clear out demonstrators, in New York City, April 30, 2024. (Photo by Edward Lopez)

The NYPD had emptied the campus by 11 p.m. Officers went through each tent. Some of them used the bathroom in Pulitzer Hall and sat in the entrance, under a memorial for journalists killed by Israeli forces since October 7.

A contracted cleaning team arrived on campus around midnight and started throwing all remaining belongings from the encampment into large trucks. By the end of the night, light green-and-yellow squares imprinted on the grass where the tents had stood were the last remaining signs of the encampment.

Police, some in black shirts, two in white, either wearing hats or helmets, stare in one direction. there are dozens of them, and they look serious. Zipties and batons can be seen in their hands. The walls of the journalism school are on the left

Police stare at student journalists as they re-enter Pulitzer Hall, the Columbia Journalism School building, after they were pushed off campus during the raid and arrests at Hamilton Hall, Columbia University, in New York City. April 30, 2024. (Photo by Sofia Mareque)

Students and faculty were only able to leave campus under police escort. A police presence was requested on campus until at least May 17 in a letter Columbia President Minouche Shafik sent the NYPD on April 30, demanding their intervention on campus.