An NYPD officer accidentally fired a single gunshot inside Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University on Tuesday night as police tried to remove anti-Israel protesters who had taken over the building.
The NYPD revealed this information in a statement to Fox News on Thursday, explaining that an Emergency Service Unit officer was trying to access a barricaded area during an “extensive and methodical search” on the first floor of the building when he accidentally fired a single gunshot.
According to the department, the error happened when the officer was illuminating the area with a flashlight attached to his firearm. Nobody was hit with the shot, as the bullet reportedly struck a frame in the wall a few feet away from the officer.
The department had conducted an “immediate investigation” into the shooting, determining that it was accidental.
“At no time was anyone, except police personnel, in sight or sound of this accidental discharge,” the department clarified.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has gotten bodycam footage of the incident.
Recently released bodycam footage showed as officers breached Hamilton Hall after hundreds of anti-Israel protesters had broken into the hall and barricaded themselves in there for over 20 hours.
Officers, dressed in riot gear, were seen in the footage trying to open the door with a tool.
According to NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Public Information Tarik Sheppard, many of the protesters at the Ivy League school campus that night were not students.
New York City Democratic Mayor Eric Adams said the same during a press conference on Wednesday in which he pointed out that the anti-Israel protest at Columbia has been infiltrated by “outside agitators” who seemed to have been trained.
“There were individuals on the campus who should not have been there. They were people who are professionals and we saw evidence of training. I know that there are those who attempting to say, ‘Well, the majority of people may have been students.’ You don’t have to be the majority to influence and co-op an operation. That is what this is about,” he said.
Eric Adams Says Columbia Anti-Israel Protest Was Co-Opted, Authorities Saw ‘Evidence Of Training’ https://t.co/4MdqWSidhF pic.twitter.com/7LRpprzxLr
— Daily Wire News (@DailyWireNews) May 1, 2024
