Other students had just deposited party leftovers in the nearby Barnard College library, where Columbia students are welcome to study. McNab headed that way.

By the end of the night, he would find himself the latest subject of another viral video — the kind that revives the tense conversation communities are having nationwide about police use of force, racial profiling and the risks that come with being a person of color in the United States.

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On his quest for free food, McNab had an encounter with public safety officers, which included a disagreement about his student ID that led officers to pin him to a countertop. The incident, filmed by two witnesses, inspired a weekend of unrest on the New York City campuses, where administrators have released statements and heldMcNab later said he was aware of but had not considered in the moment. At the time, he said, he believed the officers were stopping him only because of his skin color.

McNab kept walking, into the library and toward the food. Female students greeted him, offered him a plate and told him to take as much as he wanted. He scooped up some lamb and rice. Then the officers walked in.

There were two of them, then four, then more. They demanded to see his student ID, McNab and witnesses said. The officers grabbed McNab’s arms and pushed him against the counter at the coffee shop on the library’s first floor. They forced him onto his back.

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That’s when Caroline Cutlip, a Barnard junior who had posted about the food,