Individuals organized outside of Hochstetter Hall at UB's North Campus to call for a ceasefire to the genocide in Gaza and for the University at Buffalo and the UB Foundation to divest from Israel. Specifically, SUNY Boycott, Divest, Sanction (BDS) “wants financial divestment of all stocks, funds, partnerships, endowments and other monetary instruments from companies complicit in human rights abuse in Palestine, an academic boycott of Israeli institutions and universities, and they demand financial investments into education on Palestinian culture, literature, social movements, history and diaspora.”

After arriving at Capen Hall, protesters began setting up tents on the lawn next to Hochstetter Hall. An officer speaking through a loudspeaker ordered the protesters to disassemble those tents and place them on a nearby sidewalk within 20 minutes or face arrest. They cited a university policy from 2020 that “prohibits indoor and outdoor encampments” and “overnight assemblies.” Three students driving a U-Haul van with additional wooden pallets for the encampment were ordered to drive away from the crowd.

In response to the order to break up the camp, protesters booed the officers, shouting that UB was “our school” and that they were “legally allowed to remain for 12 hours.” The protesters still complied with the police order and removed their tents, transitioning to a sit-in.

At 8 p.m., police ordered the protesters gathered outside of Hochstetter to disperse before 8:22 p.m. or face arrest. Shortly after, University Campus Police, New York State Police, Erie County Sheriff Deputies, Buffalo Police, Amherst Police, Kenmore Police, both town and city Tonawanda Police, Lancaster Police, Cheektowaga Police, Orchard Park Police, West Seneca Police and Evans Police descended on the sit-in specifically targeting Muslim students who were wrapping up prayers. A UB spokesperson said that UB requested the outside officers come “as a precaution” and to “provide UPD with additional support if needed.”

Most protesters remained in place with locked arms as police closed in, chanting “free Palestine” and “end genocide.” Others were arrested and placed into marked police cars or onto a UB Stampede bus. Police chased the crowd toward Mary Talbert Way, continuing to make violent arrests. Multiple officers tackled protesters. One officer was filmed pushing a demonstrator’s face into the ground.

There was a ratio of at least 2:1 cop:protester. A feme presenting student's hijab was unraveled as she was forcibly restrained. One protestor's head was slammed into a door and had to be treated at the hospital for his injuries. A 67 year old man also had to be treated at the hospital for an injury to his arm.

One non-UPD officer pushed a Spectrum editor attempting to film the arrests and told him to "get the f—k out of here." When the editor identified himself as media, the officer said, "I don't care."

A small number of protesters briefly barricaded themselves in Capen Hall, which houses many of UB’s administrative offices. A Stampede bus carrying roughly 10 detained protesters left campus around 9 p.m. The protesters inside could be heard chanting “free Palestine” as the bus drove by Hochstetter. After protesters had largely dispersed, police returned to the site of the attempted encampment and Founders Plaza. They confiscated belongings left at the site as evidence like granola bars.

Though there were no announced counter-protests, some Jewish Student Union members laughed at the anti-genocide demonstrators. One did push-ups next to the protest. While police were arresting demonstrators, two individuals held up an Israeli flag. One shouted, “F—k those terrorists.”

Outcome

UB claimed 15 arrests were made. Protest organizers said that the actual number was 18. According to UB, the charges that were filed included:

• Loitering

• Trespassing

• Disorderly conduct

• Resisting arrest

All those who faced charges, have had them dismissed.

9 participants of the protest filed a Notice of Claim against Erie County, Erie County Sheriff's Office, the Town of Amherst, the Amherst Police Department, the City of Buffalo, the City of Buffalo Police Department, the Village of Kenmore, the Kenmore Police Department, the Town of Tonawanda, the Town of Tonawanda Police Department, the City of Tonawanda, the City of Tonawanda Police Department, the Town of Hamburg, the Town of Hamburg Police Department, the Village of Hamburg, the Village of Hamburg Police Department, Buffalo Police Officer Sean Ford, Buffalo Police Officer Michael Maritato, Buffalo Police Officer Bradley Caruana, and Police Officers John Doe #1-60 for personal injuries and civil rights violations, loss of income and medical expenses, equitable damages, punitive damages, and attorneys' fees and costs for the police brutality and violation of protected First Amendment Rights they sustained on May 1st, 2024.

One UB student said: "I feel like what they teach us in the class, and what they've taught us our whole lives about how we have freedom of speech, how we're in a democracy, just went out the window. We are out here trying to exercise our rights and those rights are being violated. It makes me feel angry against the (UB) president because I'm genuinely wondering, 'Where are you?' Your students are being violently arrested."

Another student said: "I'm hoping that at some point UB divests, I hope at some point that we see some change, but this is the situation right now and we have to fight somehow."

Willie Henley was shot in the abdomen by Buffalo police. "Put your bat down," calls out one officer with a gun pointed at Henley. "Nobody wants to hurt you." Henley, who continues to try to walk away from the group of more than half a dozen officers, some of whom have weapons drawn, responds, "I didn’t call y'all! I wasn’t doing nothing. I was by myself." Henley was known for carrying his baseball bat wherever he went, slept with it on street corners at night, and lined up for meals every day with it at the Buffalo City Mission. Those who regularly interacted with him described him as "very quiet, very peaceful."

James Kistner was having breakfast with his sons at his Buffalo East Side home on New Year’s Day 2017 when he noticed police at his apartment across the street.

They finished breakfast before Kistner walked outside to find out what might have caused the police presence at the apartment on Schmarbeck Avenue.

Kistner walks a few feet toward a second police cruiser that begins to back up. He gets within a foot and he throws out his arms to brace for what was about to happen: the cruiser runs into him, forcibly knocking him to the ground. No one moves. None of the officers run to check on Kistner. More than 15 seconds pass before officers get out and walk toward Kistner, who is lying on the ground yelling at his son to call 911.

Earl, Kistner’s son, runs over, sees that his dad is on the ground with his legs pushed out between the two wheels of the left side of the SUV and then walks back to the sidewalk to call 911.

Not only was Kistner struck by a police SUV and injured, but officers surrounding Kistner’s son while he called 911, shoved him around and took his phone. Police cancelled the ambulance call. An officer picks up Kistner off the ground, they cuff him and detain him in the second police cruiser that returned to the scene. Police charged Kistner with felony criminal mischief and a disorderly conduct violation.

Officers transported Kistner to ECMC, where they chained him to a gurney, and left to speak with medical staff. The officers tried to get Kistner admitted in the psych ward at ECMC, claiming he attacked the police cruiser. Kistner said the nurse told him that the officers claimed he jumped onto the police cruiser. ECMC did not admit Kistner, so police brought him to central booking where he was fingerprinted, searched and photographed. He was charged with felony criminal mischief in the third degree for the damage to the mirror and disorderly conduct.

Kistner thought he would get an appearance ticket for some violation, but the officers would eventually bring him back to ECMC to try to get him admitted a second time. Kistner again denied to a doctor that he attacked a police car and said he has video to prove it. The doctor called a family friend of the Kistners, who confirmed that the video shows Kistner being struck by the police car.

Less than an hour later, ECMC nurses told Kistner he was free to leave.

Kistner’s attorney said the officers conspired to cover up the incident to avoid discipline for hitting Kistner with a police cruiser.

Outcome

Prosecutors dismissed the charges against Kistner once they saw the video evidence.

Kistner’s attorney said as far as he knows the officers were never disciplined.

Kistner said he filed a complaint with internal affairs but was ignored. So, he decided to sue the City of Buffalo, the police commissioner and police officers Lauren McDermott, Jenny Velez, Karl Schultz, Kyle Moriarty and David T. Santana. Pending Common Council approval, James and Earl Kistner will be receiving $1,100,000 as a result of the settlement from the lawsuit.

Wilson Morales was shot by Buffalo police officers after a car chase on the city’s East Side. The bullet that struck Morales, then a 17-year-old student at WNY Maritime Charter School, instantly paralyzed him from the chest down.

Outcome

Morales, who is still recuperating, faces trial on charges of assaulting a police officer and unlawfully fleeing from a police officer.

Buffalo’s Common Council authorized one of the largest lawsuit settlements in the city’s history: $4.5 million to Morales. A grand jury cleared Officer Karl B. Schultz and a partner at the time, Jason R. Whitenight, agreeing they fired in self-defense as the teenager backed the van he was driving toward Whitenight at the tail-end of a high-speed chase.