1 month ago
23
U.S.|Fraternity Member Charged With Manslaughter in Hazing Death of University Student
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/southern-university-hazing-death-arrest.html
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Investigators say that Caleb Wilson, 20, a student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., collapsed after being hit with boxing gloves as part of a pledging ritual for Omega Psi Phi.
March 7, 2025, 7:23 p.m. ET
The police in Baton Rouge, La., on Friday announced the first of a series of expected arrests in the fraternity hazing death of Caleb Wilson, a 20-year-old Southern University student who they said was repeatedly punched with boxing gloves at a warehouse last week and was unresponsive when he was dropped off at an emergency room.
Caleb McCray, 23, a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, was charged with manslaughter and felony criminal hazing, according to court records. The authorities said at a news conference on Friday that two other suspects could soon be arrested.
Mr. McCray was identified by witnesses as the person who punched Mr. Wilson, the arrest warrant affidavit said. He turned himself in to the authorities on Thursday and was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison, the police said.
The people who brought Mr. Wilson to Baton Rouge General Medical Center told employees on the night of his death that he had collapsed after being struck in the chest while playing basketball before they fled the hospital, the authorities said.
But investigators said that they had learned that was not true.
As part of a hazing ritual for the Beta Sigma chapter of Omega Psi Phi, Mr. Wilson and several other pledges were lined up and hit four times each with boxing gloves in their chests, the authorities said.
The repeated blows caused him to collapse to the floor and suffer what had appeared to be a seizure, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
