UCLA police arrest young man for alleged assault in attack on pro-Palestinian camp

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nearly a month after counterprotesters attacked a pro-Palestinian camp at the University of California, Los Angeles, police have made the first arrest, detaining an 18-year-old who is not a student at or affiliated with the university, officials said Friday.

UCLA has not been able to determine the suspect’s identity, but county jail online records show that 18-year-old Edan On was arrested by UCLA police at a Beverly Hills store at 8:46 a.m. Thursday and held on $30,000 bail.

Last week, CNN identified On as a Beverly Hills high school student who was seen on video wearing a white mask and white hoodie and hitting a pro-Palestinian protester with a wooden pole during the April 30 attack on the campus encampment.

Counter-protesters threw traffic cones, pepper spray and live mice into the camp, leading to hours of fighting before police intervened. Muslim students and politicians criticized the fighting. Police said at least 15 people were injured, but pro-Palestinian supporters put the number at 25.

UCLA officials said the attack involved “a group of instigators.”

“During this violence, video showed an individual attacking the camp’s residents with a wooden pole, seriously injuring at least one victim,” the university said in a statement on Friday. The suspect was arrested by UCLA police on a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

On’s mother wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post in Hebrew that “Edan went to harass the Palestinian students in the tents at UCLA,” and attached a picture of the person in the white hoodie that was broadcast on local news, CNN reported. The news agency said his mother confirmed to CNN that the man in the video was her son, although she later said he denied attending UCLA.

Neither On nor his mother could be reached by the Associated Press.

On Thursday, Gene Block, chancellor of UCLA and one of the heads of three universities, was called upon to testify at a Hearing in Congress on the wave of campus protests over Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and expressed regret over the university’s handling of the attack on the camp.

“Tragically, it took several hours for police to bring the violence under control,” Block said. “In hindsight, we should have been prepared to clear the camp immediately if the safety of our community was at risk.”

The night after the attack Hundreds of police officers from various agencies flooded the campus and cleared the camp. On Wednesday, the UCLA police chief reassigned “until our security procedures are reviewed,” the school said in a statement.

On Thursday, protesters attempted to set up a new camp at UCLA, but left when asked to disperse. A crowd of protesters marched elsewhere on campus, and a small group later staged a sit-in inside a building before police evicted them.

The arrest followed an investigation that included interviews with victims and witnesses, as well as the analysis of surveillance camera images and publicly available videos from the public and news media.

The statement said university police are investigating all reported acts of violence related to protest or counter-demonstration activities since April 25.