Inside the NYPD's raid on Columbia University: Video
NEW YORK - New York City law enforcement officials surrounded Columbia University late Tuesday night.
Video obtained by FOX 5 NY from the NYPD shows the intense moments officers raided Hamilton Hall through a window.
Footage shows dozens of officers riding in on a wheeled SWAT vehicle as they circled the building.
Nearby students were put on lockdown inside dorms to allow for officers to move in.
According to a statement released by a Columbia spokesperson, the university had called in help from law enforcement.
The massive response came after demonstrators had seized much of the administration building nearly 24 hours before the bust.
Inside the NYPD's Columbia University standoff
In what Chief of Patrol John Chell described as "a dangerous, dangerous situation," the plan was to surround the building before entering, and lock down the surrounding area to prevent more students from joining in on the chaos.
Scores of officers climbed through a window to enter the occupied building, streaming in over a ramp raised from the top of a police vehicle to get inside.
Protesters were heard chanting "NYPD KKK" and "Shame on you" as officers broke windows to make their way into the university building.
The scene unfolded shortly after 9 p.m. as police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the college's entrance.
Once inside, police were met with doors barricaded with heavy-duty chains, chairs, vending machines, and other furniture.
"Columbia is ground zero for what's going on," Chell said.
The building had been occupied by several dozen pro-Palestinian protesters who left the encampment to lock themselves inside.
"They weren't going easily," Chell said.
Multiple protesters were taken into custody and taken away from campus on buses.
Video showed the scattered furniture and blocked off doors.
The demonstrators had allegedly taken out the camera system inside the building but Chell said the drones and encrypted radios helped them get inside faster without interruption.
"It was chaotic," he described as officers used halligan bars and sledgehammers to get further inside the building.
Students could be seen hiding behind furniture next to sleeping bags inside rooms.
Protesters had occupied, vandalized, and blockaded most of the building overnight.
"We were left with no choice," the school said.
Blocks away, near the college's main gate, protesters were in a standoff with police.
Police also reportedly removed a Palestinian flag that was raised on campus in place of the American flag.
Police raid aftermath
NYPD spokesman Carlos Nieves said he had no immediate reports of any injuries following the melee.
The arrests — where protesters had shrugged off an earlier ultimatum to abandon the encampment Monday or be suspended — unfolded as other universities stepped up efforts to end the protest.
Negotiations between the protesters and the college came to a standstill in recent days, and the school set a deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment Monday afternoon or be suspended.
Chief Chell says officers will remain on standby at the university's request until graduation on May 15.