DENVER — Metropolitan State University of Denver admitted its own police force zip tied doors closed when pro-Palestinian protesters were in Tivoli Hall, after claiming protesters had been responsible.
University President Janine Davidson made the false claim in a public message to the community, which was titled: "Protesters escalate tactics."
This comes after the Denver Police Department said Friday that they would not sweep the pro-Palestinian encampment on the Auraria campus quad unless the situation escalated.
The false claim about protesters zip-tying doors was removed from the university's online statement without note or correction. After 9NEWS inquired, an online correction notice was added. The correction did not specify the source of the misinformation: The school's own police.
MSU Denver spokesman Tim Carroll said the misinformation came to the president's office from Auraria campus police, who later corrected it after the president had announced it publicly.
"We did that prematurely," Carroll told 9NEWS.
A spokesperson for Auraria Campus referred 9NEWS inquiries back to the university, saying, "They have since corrected that misinformation."
When asked why the title of the president's note still reads "Protesters escalate tactics," an MSU Denver spokesperson replied that there was no need to change the headline "because protesters past pattern of violent behavior escalated in recent days."
More than a dozen protesters were detained and given tickets for trespassing in a building at Auraria Campus Tuesday evening. The demonstrators were holding a sit-in in an aerospace and engineering sciences building on the campus.
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