NYT got an interview with the irl Janny the Columbia students tried kidnapping

He was shocked, he said, when he suddenly saw five or six protesters, their faces covered by scarves or masks, picking up chairs and bringing them into the stairway.

“I'm like, what the heck is going on? Put it back. What are you doing?” he recalled.

He said he tried to block them and they tried to reason with him to get out of the way, telling him “this is bigger than you.” One person, he recalled, told him he didn't get paid enough to deal with this. Someone tried to offer him “a fistful of cash.”

He said he replied: “I don't want your money, dude. Just get out of the building.”

Mr. Torres and his colleagues called for help from the police and the school's public safety officers, but no one arrived in time to assist them. The university eventually asked the police to clear the building and other protesters around campus, but they did not come until nearly 20 hours later.

That meant the workers, who were briefly trapped inside, had to make their own way out.

“They failed to protect us,” said Mr. Torres, 45, whose scuffle with a male protester was captured by a freelance photojourn*list inside the building. The image, showing Mr. Torres pushing a man against a wall, ricocheted around social media.

Dr. Shafik, who also goes by Minouche, wrote in a letter to the police that before protesters entered the hall, “an individual hid in the building until after it closed and let the other individuals in.”

Mr. Torres was not surprised: He said he had caught a woman hiding under tables or behind doors “three or four times” over the last several weeks. And five days before the occupation, Lester Wilson, another longtime facilities worker in the building, had opened the door to a third floor closet just before midnight and found a surprise.

He said a woman was crouching in the slop sink, hiding and holding the door shut. Mr. Wilson said he brought her to university safety officers, and was not sure what happened next.

Both Mr. Torres and Mr. Wilson said they believed the occupiers had been highly organized, with knowledge of the location of the security cameras and exits, and backpacks full of supplies like rope, chains and zip ties.

Alex Molina, the president of the local union chapter, which represents both the facilities workers and the security guards, said that the guard on duty was not allowed to detain anyone and was unarmed.