Columbia University executive apartment building in New York vandalized with red paint and crickets

The Columbia University chief operating officer’s building in Brooklyn, New York, was vandalized with red paint and crickets, police said.

The New York City Police Department is looking for five people in connection with Thursday’s incident. A spokesperson said Saturday that no arrests have been made and the investigation remains ongoing.

Officers were called around 3 a.m. Thursday to a building on Orange Street where the university’s COO, Cas Holloway, lives.

A preliminary investigation determined that two people threw red paint into the building’s lobby and dropped a box containing crickets and mealworms, police said in a statement.

One of the individuals allegedly broke the glass door to the lobby with a hammer.

Several other people involved caused “damage to the facade of the building by throwing paint on the building and sidewalk,” according to police. The group fled in an unknown direction.

There were no reports of injuries, police said.

Photos released by police showed red paint spread across the sidewalk and wall of the building. Other images showed the suspects including a person wearing a hat, face mask, gloves and a zip-up hoodie. The person appeared to be holding a hammer in their hand.

The vandalism appears to have been related to protests against the Israel-Hamas war on the Ivy League campus. NBC New York reported that vandals allegedly left threatening posters with Holloway’s name and photo, criticizing his handling of the protests.

Dozens of people were arrested on campus in April after police evacuated Hamilton Hall, which had been taken over by protesters. In June, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dismissed cases against 31 people, largely due to a lack of evidence. The remaining 14 were told by prosecutors that their cases would be dropped if they avoided arrest in the next six months, but they rejected the offer.

One of the posters outside Holloway’s building featured an image of a noose, according to NBC New York. A letter left outside the building accused Holloway of leaving “a trail of violence and destruction” since he was named COO in January.

“Did you like our gift? Did that make you uncomfortable? Whatever you felt was incomparable to the pain you caused,” read part of the letter.

Holloway could not be reached Saturday at a phone number listed for him. Columbia University condemned the vandalism.

“Let us be clear: acts like these are an affront to our values,” spokesman Ben Chang said in a statement. declaration Thursday. “We unequivocally condemn them.”

Chang said anyone who engages in this type of behavior will be reported to police “and will face appropriate discipline.”

“We are sorry that Cas and his neighbors had to endure this vile attack,” he said. “Every member of our community deserves to feel safe and supported.”

New York Governor Kathy Hochul said state police were assisting the NYPD in the investigation.

“Hateful and anti-Semitic demonstrations like this will not be tolerated in New York and perpetrators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she said in a statement. publish in X.

The vandalism comes a week after a 28-year-old woman was arrested and charged with a hate crime after Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak’s home was splashed with red paint in June.

A criminal complaint alleges that Taylor Pelton and five other unarrested individuals defaced Pasternak’s home, as well as the home of Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, president and chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Museum.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there have been an increasing number of anti-Semitic and Islamophobic incidents in the US.