UCLA student journalist burned, assaulted while covering campus protest

Student journalist Catherine Hamilton was assaulted multiple times by individuals at a counterprotest while reporting on a pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, on April 30, 2024. She had earlier been denied access to a campus media relations hall designated for press safety.

UCLA’s student newspaper, the Daily Bruin, reported that protesters had erected the encampment several days earlier to call for a cease-fire 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 and editor of the Bruin, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she and her colleagues had warned UCLA Media Relations that the press needed a safe place to report from, especially after escalating violence the night before.

“We have to be able to report accurately, but we need a place to go that is safe,’” she said.

That night, Hamilton said she tried to enter the designated safe zone to shelter two younger journalists, but campus security blocked them.

“They were like, ‘Yeah, we don’t know anything about this,’” she said. She tried calling the university’s media contact, but said the official was unresponsive.

Hamilton was later trapped outside amid escalating violence. According to a March 2025 lawsuit filed by Hamilton and others against UCLA, the California Highway Patrol and the Los Angeles Police Department, people attending the counterprotest sprayed her with chemical irritants and burned her hand with a firework.

One person at the counterprotest, identified in the lawsuit as Nouri Mehdizadeh, followed Hamilton around the encampment, yelling at her and terrifying her, as well as coordinating his assaults with other mob members, the lawsuit states. Hamilton said she filed a police report against Mehdizadeh but he has not been charged.

Hamilton repeatedly called UCLA Media Relations over a three-hour span that night to report the lack of access to the safe zone and the growing threat of violence, but received no help.

After midnight that night, Mehdizadeh and others formed a human wall, blocking Hamilton and her colleagues from walking past them. Suddenly, they sprayed an unknown chemical irritant into Hamilton’s eyes. A member of the mob also hit Hamilton in the chest and knocked her to the ground, while screaming racial slurs. Hamilton later sought hospital treatment.

“Catherine continues to suffer psychologically and emotionally to this day. She truly believed the mob was going to kill someone that night,” the lawsuit states.

On other nights during the ongoing protests, Hamilton was surrounded by nearly a dozen people and struck by an individual at the counterprotest, and was assaulted.

After her experiences, Hamilton said she avoided parts of campus — especially Royce Quad, where the encampment had been — and often feared she was being followed.

“It definitely worked to intimidate me from being on campus,” she said.

However, Hamilton said it also strengthened her resolve to defend press freedom and support fellow journalists.

“It just made me feel really passionate about the rights of journalists on the ground,” she said. “UCLA really is trying to sweep it under the rug and act like it never happened. And I wanted to be on a public record, standing up for myself and others.”