Police officer accidentally shoots inside New York university building while removing pro-Palestine protesters | World

Police officer accidentally shoots inside New York University building

The information was released this Friday (3) by the New York Police.

The sergeant had broken the glass of a cabinet inside the building and then changed his handgun. When he did this, the pistol went off.

The information comes from Carlos Valdez, assistant head of the Emergency Services Unit.

On Tuesday, a large number of New York City police officers entered Columbia University to clear dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who remained on campus.

Students had occupied Hamilton Hall hours earlier after setting up camp earlier in the month. After police forces entered the campus, protesters who resisted were detained.

Shortly before the officers entered the campus, the New York Police Department received a warning from Columbia authorizing the officers to act, a police officer told The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The police used a ladder to access one of the university’s windows. To support the operation, a bus was made available to transport the detained students.

Students returned to setting up tents after police evacuated a camp at the university on April 18 and detained more than 100 people. Students had been protesting on the Manhattan campus since the previous day, opposing Israel’s military action in Gaza and demanding that the school divest from companies that they claim are profiting from the conflict.

After the police action, protesters continued to demonstrate in the streets around the university. The shouts of order, this time, came from the New York police.

After ignoring an ultimatum from management to dismantle the camp, pro-Palestine protesters broke windows and invaded a university building in the early hours of Tuesday (30).

The invasion occurred after the university began suspending students who defied the deadline of an “ultimatum” given by Columbia’s management on Monday (29) and remained camped out in the main campus square. This measure occurred due to the failure of negotiations between the board and the protest leadership to demobilize the protest.

The protest group is part of a wave of demonstrations in favor of Palestine that have taken over major universities in the United States in recent days.

Following the early Tuesday morning invasion, Columbia University issued a statement threatening expulsion of these students and saying that the protesters had “chosen to escalate an unsustainable situation.” According to management, its top priority was “restoring safety and order on our campus.”

On Tuesday night, the university released a statement stating that it requested the presence of the police to “restore security and order”.

“We regret that the protesters chose to worsen the situation through their actions. After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized and locked down, we had no choice. Columbia public safety staff were forced to leave the building and a member of our facilities team was threatened. We will not risk the safety of our community or the potential for further escalation,” the statement said.

According to the university, counselors met during the early hours of the morning and made the decision to ask for police assistance. The institution says it believes the group that invaded the building is led by “individuals not linked to the university”.

Regarding the pro-Palestine acts, the university made a point of making it clear that the police call was not a response to the cause but to the acts. “We make it clear that life on campus cannot be interrupted indefinitely by protesters who violate the rules and the law,” the note added.