The NYPD has released bodycam video from the two officers who responded to the off-campus Columbia University apartment building where a student was being detained by federal agents last week.
The bodycam footage, taken shortly after 6:30 a.m. on Feb. 26, shows officers driving to the scene, and heading into the apartment building.
The building’s superintendent, a few minutes earlier, had let other officers in, who allegedly said they were looking for a missing person.
At some point it became clear that those officers were from the Department of Homeland Security and were looking for a university student, 29-year-old Ellie Aghayeva, a senior originally from Azerbaijan.
That’s when someone called 911 reporting suspicious activity by two males.
The two NYPD officers made their way to the second floor where they saw one federal agent and assessed that he was the so-called “suspicious person.” He told the officers he was Homeland Security.
The NYPD officers then made their way farther into the apartment.
“I think that’s the suspicious person right there, all black,” said one of the officers in the bodycam footage.
The NYPD was only on the scene for a few minutes. The student is never seen on the video, and the officers leave saying they’ve identified the suspicious people as federal agents.
Columbia issued a statement reiterating that the University “does not permit law enforcement officials to enter University residences or other private property except under specific circumstances,” including legitimate emergencies and when they present a valid judicial warrant or subpoena.
The school has also given additional training to frontline personnel at campus buildings and residential facilities, increased safety patrols and is upgrading infrastructure to allow for video intercom systems.
The incident sparked protests on campus and concerns about how the federal agents got inside.
Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal is calling for Columbia University to release their own security camera footage.
As for the student, she was released later in the day.
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