Officers in the New York Police Department entered Columbia University after sunset on Tuesday, less than 24 hours after students protesting the war in Gaza broke into and occupied a campus building, according to The New York Times and Columbia’s student radio station.
Reporters with the station, WKCR, reported that police were closing in on Hamilton Hall as student protesters formed a human barricade outside. Other officers swept an all-but-abandoned encampment on a lawn, shining flashlights into tents as they searched for occupants.
Scores of officers in riot gear had begun gathering outside the campus, which has been closed to non-students for days, earlier on Tuesday. The heavy police presence sparked rumors that a raid was imminent.
This is a developing story and will be updated.