NEW YORK
Police had tens of hours of security-camera footage, a rope to test for DNA and extensive interviews with possible witnesses
But nearly two months after someone hung a noose on a Black Columbia University professor’s office door, police say they have no suspects in the apparent hate crime that shook the Ivy League campus.
A separate case involving a Jewish professor and a swastika at the same graduate school of education also remains unsolved. Both incidents were part of a recent surge in reports of hate crimes across the city, police say.
Police had held out hope that an exhaustive review of the surveillance images would help break the case of the noose, found Oct. 9 at Columbia’s Teachers College. But the analysis yielded “no relevant information,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters Friday following a promotion ceremony.
Nor have any promising leads sprung from interviews of faculty members and students or DNA testing on the 4-foot length of rope, officials said.
In recent weeks, Teachers College administrators have organized campus forums on race to try to soothe “bruised feelings” while awaiting an arrest, said college spokesman Joe Levine.
