( CNN ) -- A campus police officer who sprayed seated protesters with pepper spray during a police attempt to clear out an Occupy encampment at the University of California Davis last year no longer works at the school , a university spokeswoman said . But she declined to specify whether the officer , Lt. John Pike , quit or was let go . `` We can confirm he is no longer employed as of today ... but we can not confirm anything else because of privacy guidelines , '' said Claudia Morain , News Service Director at U.C . Davis . Video footage of Pike spraying student demonstrators in November 2011 with the irritant at close range went viral online , provoking widespread criticism of school authorities and making him the brunt of Internet ridicule . The group of about a dozen protesters had sat down on a path with their arms interlocked as the police moved in to clear out the Occupy encampment . Police officers forcibly removed the demonstrators after they had been sprayed . UC-Davis placed Pike , a second officer and Campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza on administrative leave after the incident . The pepper-spraying was an `` objectively unreasonable '' use of force by the campus police , a 190-page report by a University of California task force said in April . The report also accused Pike of misusing his now-iconic weapon . The bright red pepper-spray canister he brandished to the crowd before discharging was `` not an authorized weapon '' under campus police guidelines , and `` is a higher pressure type of pepper spray than what officers normally carry on their utility belts . '' It was designed to be used at a distance of at least six feet . `` And Lt. Pike did not use it correctly , '' the report found . The task force also blamed members of the UC-Davis leadership , citing `` systemic and repeated failures '' among campus administrators that `` put officers in the unfortunate situation in which they found themselves . '' It described the campus police command structure as `` very dysfunctional , '' with Spicuzza 's lieutenants refusing to follow orders and getting into `` heated exchanges '' with the chief during the protests . But Pike was primarily responsible for the `` objectively unreasonable decision '' to pepper-spray the demonstrators , it concluded . Pranksters across the Internet have inserted the image of the helmeted policeman into famous paintings , photos and movie scenes , while the hacking collective Anonymous published his home and cell phone numbers online .
Officer who sprayed seated protesters no longer works at the university . Video of Lt. John Pike spraying students at close range went viral on the Internet . Pike and two others were placed on administrative leave after the incident .