UCLA police make first arrest in April 30 attack on protest encampment

UCLA police make first arrest in connection with with the attack of April 30 at a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus, arresting an 18-year-old man in Beverly Hills, the university announced Friday.

Officers arrested the suspect, identified as Edan On, 18, on suspicion of felonious assault with a deadly weapon, campus police said. He was jailed Thursday, where he was being held on $30,000 bail.

Investigators identified him from a video that allegedly showed him attacking people staying inside the camp with a wooden pole, leaving at least one person seriously injured, according to UCLA police . He was found after investigators spoke with witnesses, interviewed victims and reviewed security footage and other videos taken that night, the university said in a news release.

UCLA said the suspect was not a university student, faculty or staff member.

The arrest came just over three weeks after a group of counter-protesters approached the Westwood campus encampment, provoking clashes during which fireworks were thrown and some people were sprayed with tear gas.

The “group of instigators went to Royce Quad and violently attacked students, faculty and staff members who were occupied in an encampment there,” reads a previous statement from UCLA.

Rick Braziel, who was named head of the new Office of Campus Safety in the days following the protests, released a statement on the arrest, confirming that it was the first in the ongoing investigation into the April 30 attack.

“As Chancellor Block has shared, those who have inflicted violence on our community will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Deputy Vice Chancellor Braziel said in the statement.

On Thursday, a day before the arrest was announced, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., criticized the leadership of UCLA Chancellor Gene Block during a House hearing. Block testified about the response to protests on campus, as well as how the university handled allegations of discrimination against students and faculty.

While some lawmakers have accused him of not doing enough to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism, others have blasted his oversight of law enforcement investigations into incidents of violence — including on the night of April 30.

Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota told Block that UCLA leaders and law enforcement “stood there for hours” while a “mob of agitators” confronted people staying at the encampment . She held up a photo from that night, calling it “appalling.”

“Are any of these people in prison? Are any of these people arrested?” Omar asked the chancellor, showing her the photo.

Block said LAPD detectives are going through photos and other images to find potential suspects.

“It’s been over a month,” Omar replied.

Earlier this week, Rasha Gerges Shields, vice chair of the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, asked LAPD investigators what they were doing to find the attackers involved in the violence at UCLA on the night of 30 april. the Palestinian and Muslim American communities who demanded justice.

“There is concern that law enforcement is not doing enough to arrest the perpetrators,” Shields said. “I want to understand what role the ministry plays in identifying and bringing to justice those who attacked the protesters.”

LAPD Deputy Chief Daniel Randolph said the agency is assisting the UCLA Police Department in tracking down the suspects, as well as investigators from police departments at other universities in the University's 10-campus system from California.

“I know they are looking at the digital evidence and seeking to bring justice to this event,” Randolph said of investigators reviewing photos and videos.