33 charged with trespassing in pro-Palestinian protest at University of Washington

Paige Cornwell, The Seattle Times on Mar 5, 2026

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SEATTLE — Prosecutors charged 33 members of a pro-Palestinian protest group with first-degree criminal trespassing in connection with the May 2025 occupation of a University of Washington engineering building, as the protesters called for the school to sever ties with Boeing.

The King County District Court charges were filed nearly 10 months after the protest group, called Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return UW, or SUPER UW, blocked the entrances to the university’s new Interdisciplinary Engineering Building and refused to leave the building for hours. According to the university, protesters damaged the building and its equipment, including four new manufacturing machines, valued at $35,000 to $120,000.

UW spokesperson Victor Balta called the charges an important step in ensuring accountability for those involved in the protest, in addition to the suspensions that 21 UW students received through the student conduct process.

“We value free speech and expression but also must continue to be a campus community where dangerous, unlawful actions are not tolerated,” Balta said in a statement.

SUPER UW members said at the time they wanted UW to evict Boeing’s presence in the engineering building and cut financial ties with Boeing, a major supplier to the Israel Defense Forces. Protesters hung a banner from a second-floor window of the building and relabeled it the Shaban al-Dalou Building, in remembrance of a 19-year-old engineering student killed by an airstrike in Gaza.

According to probable cause documents, which are similar for each person charged, a group of protesters wearing black entered the building around 5 p.m. May 5, 2025, then barricaded the doors with furniture. University police, Seattle police and state troopers responded and tried to negotiate with the protesters but were turned down.

After a final dispersal order around 11 p.m., officers wearing riot gear went into the building and placed protesters in hand restraints. They were arrested for investigation of trespassing, property destruction and disorderly conduct, as well as conspiracy to commit all three crimes, and taken to King County Jail.

Felony charges of first-degree malicious mischief and second-degree burglary were referred to the King County prosecuting attorney’s office, but those were declined when UW police investigators determined there was insufficient evidence. There was no surveillance video capturing the incident, and available videos and electronic devices weren’t sufficient to establish identities of the perpetrators of the damage, according to court documents. In December, the UW police department said all investigative leads had been exhausted.

The cases were resubmitted to prosecutors for misdemeanor charges in January, according to the prosecutor’s office. Arraignments for the 33 people are set for March 25. The charge carries a penalty of up to 364 days in jail and up to a $5,000 fine.