Two custodians at Columbia University have reached an undisclosed settlement with the school following a violent anti-Israel protest at Hamilton Hall in 2024, during which they say they were trapped, assaulted, and later forced to clean swastika graffiti.
Lester Wilson and Mario Torres, both employed at the university for five years, were inside the building when protesters took over the facility. Demonstrators barricaded the entrances, preventing the custodians from leaving. According to the initial complaint, the protesters threatened them with violence and called the men “Jew lovers,” despite neither being Jewish. The custodians say they were physically assaulted as they tried to escape.
Torres recalled a masked protester threatening him by saying, “I’m going to get twenty guys up here to f*** you up.” He said he grabbed a fire extinguisher for protection and was ultimately struck in the back while fleeing. Wilson was also attacked while escaping the scene.
The two men were also tasked with removing swastikas painted on the walls.
“Mr. Wilson recognized the swastikas as symbols of white supremacy. As an African-American man, he found the images deeply distressing. He reported them to his supervisors, who instructed him to erase the graffiti,” he said in the complaint. “No matter how many times Mr. Wilson removed the swastikas, individuals kept replacing them with more.”
Both men have been unable to return to work after the incident due to their injuries.
The custodians later filed complaints against the university, which triggered a broader civil rights investigation. Though the settlement amount with Columbia was not disclosed, both men are continuing to pursue legal action against more than 40 individual protesters they allege were directly responsible for the assaults.
“The university set up the situation and ended up putting them into that situation, now the issue is holding accountable those who carried it out and were responsible for the takeover and the assault,” said Brandeis Center president Alyza Lewin, according to the New York Post.
The settlement coincides with a larger $220 million agreement that Columbia reached with the Trump administration to restore federal funding. Of that total, $200 million is allocated for resolving civil rights claims from employees, while $20 million is specifically set aside for workers who were “unlawfully targeted” during the campus protests. Wilson and Torres are expected to receive compensation from that portion.
