Cops: Still No Suspects in Columbia Noose Incident
Tom Hays, AP, November 30, 2007
Nearly two months after someone hung a noose on the office door of a black Columbia University professor, police say they have no suspects in the apparent hate crime that shook the Ivy League campus.
Police had held out hope that an exhaustive review of tens of hours of images from security cameras would help break the case. But the analysis yielded “no relevant information,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Friday following a promotion ceremony.
Extensive interviews of faculty members and students since the noose was found at Columbia’s Teachers College also have failed to produce any promising leads, officials said. Nor, they added, has DNA testing on the 4-foot length of rope.
A separate case at the same graduate school of education—involving a Jewish professor and a swastika—remains unsolved. Police officials said both incidents were part of a recent surge in reports of hate crimes across the city.
In recent weeks, administrators at Teachers College have organized campus forums on race to try to soothe “bruised feelings” while awaiting for news of an arrest, said college spokesman Joe Levine.
{snip}
[Editor’s Note: AR News stories on the Columbia Noose incident can be read here.]
