The Brooklyn, New York, apartment building of Columbia University’s chief operating officer was vandalized with red paint and crickets, police said.
The New York City Police Department is searching for five people in connection with Thursday’s incident. A spokesperson said Saturday that no arrests had been made and the investigation remains ongoing.
Officers were called at 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 inside the building’s vestibule and unleashed a box containing crickets and mealworms, police said in a statement.
One of the individuals allegedly broke the glass lobby door with a hammer.
Several other people involved caused “damage to the front 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 splattered across the sidewalk and on the wall of the building. Other images showed the suspects, including one person who was wearing a hat, face mask, gloves and a zippered 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 the vandals allegedly left threatening posters with Holloway’s name and picture, criticizing his handling of the protests.
Dozens of people were arrested on campus in April after police cleared out Hamilton Hall, which had been taken over by protesters. In June, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office dismissed cases against 31 people mostly because of a lack of evidence. The remaining 14 were told by prosecutors that their cases would be dropped if they avoided being arrested in the next six months, but they rejected the offer.
One of the posters outside Holloway’s building contained 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 appointed COO in January.
“Did you enjoy our present? Did it make you uncomfortable Whatever you felt was incomparable to the pain you made,” the letter read in part.
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,” spokesperson Ben Chang said in a statement Thursday. “We condemn them unequivocally.”
Chang said anyone who engages in that type of behavior will be reported to police “and face the appropriate discipline.”
“We regret 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 Gov. Kathy Hochul said state police were assisting the NYPD with the investigation.
“Hateful, antisemitic displays like this will not be tolerated in New York, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” she said in a post on X.
The vandalism comes a week after a 28-year-old woman was arrested and charged with a hate crime after the home of Brooklyn Museum director Anne Pasternak was splattered with red paint in June.
A criminal complaint alleges that Taylor Pelton and five other unapprehended individuals defaced Pasternak’s home as well as the home of Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, the president and chief operating officer of the Brooklyn Museum.
Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, there has been a rising number of antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents in the U.S.
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