Two UC Davis Police Officers Suspended in Wake of Pepper Spraying

Two University of California Davis police officers connected to the pepper-spraying of nonviolent student protesters on Friday were put on administrative leave Sunday.

The officers were not identified, but a statement by the university announced the decision to place them on leave. One of them has already been identified as Lt. John Pike.

Videos taken during Friday's arrests showed that the two officers used pepper spray on peacefully seated students, the statement said.

Video of the incident, which sent two students to the hospital and ten to jail, went viral Saturday, and the topic has been at the fore of the national news cycle for the past 24 hours.

The faculty association on Saturday called on UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi to step down, as has the Occupy UC Davis group itself. She has so far said she will not heed the calls.

I am deeply saddened that this happened on our campus, and as chancellor, I take full responsibility for the incident, Katehi said in a statement Sunday. However, I pledge to take the actions needed to ensure that this does not happen again. I feel very sorry for the harm our students were subjected to and I vow to work tirelessly to make the campus a more welcoming and safe place.

Katehi has said she is stepping up the investigation of the incident, in which seated students were sprayed with pepper spray during an Occupy UC Davis protest. She has set up a task force to look into the circumstances surrounding it, and she has set a deadline of 30 days for it to release a report.

Students performed what has been described as a public shaming of Katehi Saturday evening, sitting in deafening silence as she walked slowly from one of the school's buildings to her vehicle to head home for the day.

Katehi has told reporters that she will speak publicly about the incident Monday, the same day Occupy UC Davis plans to host a follow-up rally on the school's quad. More than 1,300 people have already said on Facebook that they will be attending to the event.