U of A president orders arrests, police and protesters clash, protesters retreat, camp broken up

Breaking update, 2 a.m.:

Officers in riot gear and gas masks fire "chemical irritant munitions" as they advance on protesters at the University of Arizona.

Arrests begin on the orders of UA President Robert C. Robbins.

Shoving matches break out between some protesters and advancing officers, and a barrage of items is thrown in the air, toward the officers, in the loud, chaotic scene.

Protesters begin to retreat as officers follow them and the encampment is being broken up. 

Witnesses calling themselves police watchdogs say at least four arrestees were loaded into vans. 

A protester shows an Arizona Daily Star reporter where they say they were hit in the head with a rubber bullet, leaving a large welt. 

By 2:50 a.m. Wednesday, protesters have cleared out. Workers in hazmat suits begin to clean up the site.  

This all comes down immediately after UA announced at 2 a.m.: "University of Arizona President Robert C. Robbins has directed University officials and the University of Arizona Police Department, to immediately enforce campus use policies and all corresponding laws without further warning.

"The UAPD is supported by members of the Tucson Police Department, Pima County Sheriff's Office and the state's Department of Public Safety. The University will continue to act in the best interests of our students, faculty and staff to ensure their safety."

At the same time, CNN reports that at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), "a violent confrontation has broken out between pro-Palestinian protesters and Israel supporters." 

1 - 2 a.m.:

A witness says "a drunk" onlooker is flashing what she thinks is a gun by Park Avenue near the UA encampment shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday. The witness takes video of the incident that news reporters review and that she says she gave to police. 

Another onlooker who arrives near University Boulevard and Park, near the on-campus protest encampment, says UA Police "just told us as we were arriving that the entire area, including outside the red lines, is open for arrests."

Protest organizers with the group Students Against Apartheid send a message to their group chat at 1:45 a.m. asking for sleeping bags and blankets, "so campers can rest while everyone rallying keeps eyes on cops and agitators." 

They add, "Night owls we need you! UA students and community are staying strong barricaded in their encampment and the pigs are surrounded by 1,000 observers and supporters. GET HERE NOW AND HELP US MAKE IT TIL DAWN."

Midnight hour:

SWAT officers carrying pepper ball guns arrive at midnight at a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Arizona and move slowly toward the barricaded protesters.

Protesters resume throwing things at SWAT and police officers.

UA Police announce on a loudspeaker at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday that "chemical munitions" will be used if items continue to be thrown at officers, and repeat that warning twice in the next 10 minutes.

At about 12:30 a.m., UA sends out a push alert to the campus community also warning: "Police may deploy chemical irritant munitions. Follow the orders of police. Leave the area immediately."

Protesters chant "Shame on you."

There are an estimated 40 SWAT officers and police in riot gear surrounding them, while it appears about 30 protesters remain barricaded, but journalists there covering the events do not have a good view to be confident of numbers.

At 1 a.m., two-and-a-half hours after those in the encampment violated UA curfew policy, and about 90 minutes after police announced they "are officially under arrest," no arrests have been made.

Students Against Apartheid sends out a message to its group chat: "Camp needs — Energy Drinks — Food — Water". In an earlier message they also listed chapstick. 

How the scene unfolded before that:

The protesters refused to leave the one-day encampment after a 10:30 p.m. campus curfew for non-academic activities and after many warnings.

Slightly less than an hour after the deadline passed Tuesday night, UA Police announced the protesters "are officially under arrest."

Minutes before the deadline, protesters had barricaded themselves in even as a UA official using a bullhorn announced what she said was a final official warning to leave or be arrested. Twenty minutes before that, protest organizers handed out supplies to use in case of potential pepper-spray or tear-gas use by police.

Police began surrounding the scene, near UA's main gate and next to Arizona State Museum, shortly before 10:30. Law enforcement presence nearby included SWAT trucks and dozens of police officers.

Authorities were prepared to bus protesters to the Pima County jail to be booked, according to a source who spoke to a member of UA's senior administration Tuesday night. 

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

However, 20 minutes after the deadline, UA police were still trying to negotiate with the protesters, and authorities offered another chance to disperse.

The protesters started chanting, "If you come in we will fight you!"

At 10:55, police entered the encampment and started tearing down a piece of a barricade. Some protesters threw items at police, apparently including water bottles. Protesters dragged the piece back into their barricade.  

An alert was sent out to the university community about 11 p.m. saying UA Police were responding to an unlawful assembly at the site, near University Boulevard and Park Avenue, and to "leave and avoid the area." It appeared that hundreds of people, protesters as well as counter-protesters, along with some apparently intoxicated hecklers, had gathered on Park Avenue. Authorities had closed the streets there and barricaded the UA main gate.  

At that point, about 25 police officers in riot gear arrived with handheld and facial shields, guns and batons. 

Authorities then moved onlookers, including journalists covering the events, further north from the scene, as UA Police Chief Chris Olsen said "they do not feel safe" with them there, even though journalists were outside of the zone they had been told to avoid. 

That made it more difficult for journalists to see what was going on. Reporters estimated there were about 30 protesters inside the barricaded encampment at that point, but they didn't have a good view. 

It was at about 11:20 p.m. that police announced protesters in the encampment "are officially under arrest."

The protesters, railing against Israel's actions in its war with Hamas in Gaza, had built makeshift structures up, starting when the camp setup began Tuesday afternoon, by adding wood and corrugated metal panels.

Protesters said they were told by UA leaders that police said the demonstrators had weapons of wood and metal barricades.

"Help us build our barricade. Help us be ready to combat the police," a protest organizer who did not give a name said earlier into a megaphone, about an hour and a half before the deadline to leave.

Arrest warnings had been issued for two days.

“University policy provides that non-academic activity on the mall and across the campus must conclude by 10:30 p.m. The university expects students, staff and campus visitors to adhere to university policies. “Those who do not disperse when requested will be subject to arrest,” a UA spokesperson, Mitch Zak, said Monday.

“The university is committed to respecting and protecting the free speech rights of our students and the university,” Zak said. “We are monitoring today’s event and are engaging in active conversations with the participants.”

Across the nation

Solidarity-with-Gaza demonstrations on university campuses span from California to Massachusetts, including at all three of Arizona's public universities. More than 70 people were arrested at Arizona State University in Tempe over the weekend on criminal trespassing charges related to an encampment staying up past an 11 p.m. curfew.

At Columbia University in New York, police cleared 30 to 40 people from inside Hamilton Hall Tuesday night after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied the administration building more than 12 hours earlier, spreading their reach from an encampment elsewhere on the grounds that's been there for nearly two weeks, the Associated Press reported.

New York police, wearing helmets and carrying zip ties and riot shields, massed at the Ivy League university’s entrance. Officers breached Hamilton Hall to clear out the structure.

Events earlier Tuesday, Monday at UA

At the UA, meanwhile, the protesters brought in fencing earlier on Tuesday, saying they wanted to fence themselves in for protection from "agitators." UA Police told them to remove the fencing and return it to a construction site, which they did with police help.

First thing Tuesday morning, the university fenced off grassy portions of the UA Mall, an iconic Tucson green space heavily used by students and other members of the public, and surrounded it with "no trespassing" signs.

The mall closure came after a daylong protest Monday on the mall by Students Against Apartheid. Day One, which included about 200 protesters at one point, ended with the demonstrators voting to disperse, leave and avoid arrests amid heavy police presence.

The UA's Zak said there were no arrests Monday night, and praised that outcome as illustrating "the value of community dialogue between organizers, campus leaders, and public safety.”

But the protesters chose the new site and returned Tuesday. 

Protesters' "demands"

Students Against Apartheid organizers, who refuse to provide their last names, saying they fear retaliation, said they are demanding that UA disclose all investments made in Israel and Israeli companies and divest student tuition money from those investments.

They posted on X that they are also seeking a public statement from UA and the Arizona Board of Regents “condemning Israel’s genocidal campaign and calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

The group's post also demanded that the university defund the UA Police Department and redirect all resources towards “care and justice."