Editor’s Note: The name of the individual arrested was removed from this story to reflect The Badger Herald’s newsroom policy. This story has since been updated to include information from the Madison Police Department.

The Madison Police Department arrested an individual involved with the pro-Palestinian encampment on Library Mall at around 7 p.m. Friday. The individual was present during the encampment raid on May 1, when 34 arrests were made. 

City of Madison Police Department Public Information Officer Stephanie Fryer told The Badger Herald in an email statement that the person arrested pulled a police officer to the ground on May 1, attempting to disarm the officer of their wooden baton. The officer was wearing apparel that identified them as an officer with MPD and had previously requested that the individual back away.

The interaction was caught on city surveillance cameras, photos were shared on social media and area businesses noticed the man walking, then driving away from the scene, Fryer said. 

The individual, a UW alum, was arrested for allegedly disarming and causing battery or threat to law enforcement. Disarming and causing harm to or threatening a police officer are both Class H felonies in Wisconsin — the individual could face up to 12 years in prison and maximum fines of $20,000.

MPD contacted the individual at their home Thursday, May 23, and they were arrested while taking groceries into their house the following evening, according to a statement from Students for Justice in Palestine. The individual refused to talk to detectives who approached his door on Thursday, and was on their phone with their attorney when approached by an officer who noticed them driving when on routine patrol on Friday evening, Fryer said. The person was arrested without incident.

SJP expressed concern about the timing of the arrest, which occurred immediately before a holiday weekend. 

“MPD knew that if they arrested the person on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend, they would be sitting over the entirety of the holiday weekend as they would not be able to be arraigned until the following Tuesday,” SJP said in the statement. “This was an intentional move on their part to force this person to sit over the long weekend and create chaos within the movement.”