Wednesday, May 8, 2024
Columbia U violence: the face of Hamas in America
Columbia custodian who took on masked pro-terror rioter is too afraid to return to campus — and fears he will be fired
Published May 7, 2024, 1:57 p.m. ET
The Columbia University custodian who took on a pro-terror protester during the seizure of Hamilton Hall said he was “freaking out” when the mob stormed the building while he was working — an experience that’s left him too scared to return to campus.
Mario Torres, 45, was caught in the violence when rioters took Hamilton Hall on April 30, with the father-of-two caught on camera wrestling with demonstrator James Carlson, who The Post revealed to be the scion of millionaire ad execs.
“We don’t expect to go to work and get swarmed by an angry mob with rope and duct tape and masks and gloves,” Torres told The Free Press.
Torres said it was clear the seizure of Hamilton Hall was well planned given the protesters quick work and coordination, with the custodian noticing that even the cameras were covered.
The worker said he was trying to “protect the building” when he came across Carlson, 40. He was able to pin the trust-fund kid against the wall and rip off his hoodie, exposing his face.
“I was freaking out,” Torres said of the frightening altercation. “At that point, I’m thinking about my family. How was I gonna get out? Through the window?”
While Torres was able to make it out of Hamilton Hall before the protesters locked down the building with makeshift barricades, he said the experience has left him shaken and unable to go back to Columbia.
“They should have protected us a little bit more,” he told the Press. “Even when I left the building I did not see one public safety officer. What’s that about? We had to fight our way out.”
As he finds himself unable to go to campus, Torres now fears he’ll lose his job.
He said his fears are only exacerbated by his decision to speak out against the school.
“Is Columbia going to retaliate and find a reason to fire me? Is someone going to come after me,” he asked. “So I’m taking a big risk doing this, but I think that they failed. They failed us.
“They should have done more to protect us, and they didn’t,” Torres added.
A GoFundMe has raised more than $21,000 as of Tuesday morning to support Torres and provide him with legal counsel should he find his job in peril.
Columbia University did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Torres’ comments come as the Transport Workers Union, which represents many of the university’s janitors, said it would sue the Ivy League school after a handful of staffers were allegedly mistreated when Hamilton Hill was seized by protesters.
“This is appalling, disgusting and we are not going to stop until we figure out every means of legal recourse,” the union’s president, John Samuelsen, told The Post on Tuesday.
“Frankly, Columbia cannot be relied upon to protect their blue-collar workers.”
“The school could have done more to, A, prevent this and, B, to be there for us when we needed them,” he added, noting that he feels “abandoned” by Columbia.
Torres was working in Hamilton Hall when the mob stormed the building, breaking through glass and barricading the entrances as they sought to occupy the historic building named after founding father Alexander Hamilton that was home to a similar 1968 protest.
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