Student journalist attacked at UCLA pro-Palestinian protest; files civil suit

Student journalist Catherine Hamilton was reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 27, 2024, when she was grabbed, threatened and struck by one individual at a counterprotest, and surrounded by nearly a dozen others.

UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment on campus two days earlier, to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza war and demand that the UC system divest from companies that invest in weapons manufacturers for the Israeli military.

Hamilton, then a third-year undergraduate student and editor of the Bruin, arrived on campus around 11 p.m. in her role as journalist and photographer, according to a March 2025 lawsuit she and others filed against UCLA, the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department for how they handled the violence on campus.

In an interview with the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker, Hamilton said she was taking pictures when a group of people at the counterprotest shouted rape threats and death threats at her through a megaphone and continued to follow her as she tried to move away.

“It was definitely intimidating and unsettling,” she said.

Hamilton said some of the pro-Palestinian protesters inside the encampment tried to help, but Hamilton declined protection to maintain her neutrality. But the offer only intensified the aggression from those at the counterprotest, who thought she was aligned with the encampment.

According to the lawsuit, a group of 11 individuals at the counterprotest surrounded Hamilton. One, identified in the lawsuit as Nouri Mehdizadeh, repeatedly cursed at Hamilton and took pictures of her press credentials, according to the complaint. He then grabbed Hamilton and hit her, while others shone bright lights directly into Hamilton’s eyes. Hamilton said she filed a police report against Mehdizadeh but he has not been charged.

Hamilton said UCLA’s private security guards watched the attacks and did nothing. When she asked why, they didn’t respond.

“I really didn’t have any hope that they were there watching for anyone’s safety,” she said.

Hamilton later posted about her experience on the social platform X: “From the journalistic perspective of someone there, those events were not clashes. They were unprovoked attacks against college students by mostly adults.”

On other nights during the ongoing protests, Hamilton was assaulted again, denied access to a campus media relations hall designated for reporter safety, and later taken to the hospital after reporting difficulty breathing and standing.

“I was very determined to make sure that the truth of what was happening at the encampment was portrayed accurately through the Daily Bruin,” she said. “But it definitely did make me watch over my shoulder and be more wary.”