Rutgers frat horror: 19-year-old found near death as hazing claims explode

🔴 Rutgers student found critically injured in house

🔴 Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity chapter suspended amid hazing investigation

🔴 NJ parents of Penn State hazing victim demand appropriate justice

UPDATE: What we know about the injured Rutgers student & hazing accusations

NEW BRUNSWICK — A 19-year-old Rutgers University student remained in critical condition on Saturday and a fraternity house was shut down as onlookers tensely waited for answers on just what happened days earlier.

After a disconnected 911 call just after 12:30 a.m., Wednesday, the young man was found unresponsive and hurt at a home in New Brunswick, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said on Friday afternoon.

Fraternity house shutdown as residents pack up

As the details were made public, residents of the Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity house at 106 College Ave. were seen packing their personal items and leaving, ABC 7 New York reported.

It was the same house that was the hub of police and EMS activity on Wednesday, students told News 12.

The local chapter of Alpha Sigma Phi has been suspended as the nationwide fraternity condemned hazing.

“Hazing has no part in the Alpha Sigma Phi experience. It is not condoned nor is it tolerated,��� Alpha Sigma Phi President and CEO Gordy Heminger said in a statement on Friday.

He said if evidence shows that such actions had unfolded at Rutgers, it would lead to the chapter being closed.

NJ’s strict anti-hazing law could come into play

Hazing is a third-degree crime if it results in death or serious bodily injury in New Jersey, under a state law in effect since March 2022.

Gov. Phil Murphy signed the law in a 2021 ceremony attended by New Jersey parents, Jim and Evelyn Piazza, whose 19-year-old son, Timothy, died in a fraternity hazing ritual at Penn State University in 2017.

The law also qualifies hazing as a fourth-degree crime, rather than a disorderly persons offense, if it results in bodily injury.

Piazzas, who lost son, say ‘Hazing is not an accident’

“We are greatly disturbed by what happened to this young man and we are very disappointed to see posts by parents at Rutgers who are commenting on how bad their kids were hazed and yet no one ever reported,” Evelyn Piazza said in a statement to New Jersey 101.5 on Saturday.

“Parents are part of the problem if they aren’t speaking up to keep their kids and other kids safe,” she said.

Since the 19-year-old’s hospitalization, unconfirmed reports have swept online chats and social media as to how the young man was critically hurt.

The Piazzas have said they are expecting to see New Jersey’s strict law be applied, as warranted.

“We have spoken to the family and this clearly was a hazing crime warranting a felony charge for aggravated hazing,” Evelyn Piazza said to New Jersey 101.5.

“Hazing is NOT an accident. Hazing is always done with the intention to cause some form of harm,” Evelyn Piazza said in a Facebook post on Friday.

Jim Piazza said that as the law in their son’s memory was signed a few years ago, he and his wife had a clear conversation with the Middlesex County prosecutor, knowing the office oversees the Rutgers New Brunswick campus.

“This was Felony Hazing. No question about it. Someone was seriously hurt. If the prosecutor doesn’t see that then they just are not right for the job,” Jim Piazza said on Facebook, commenting beneath his wife’s post.

Law not being followed?

Former state Sen. Kip Bateman, R-Somerset, said Timothy Piazza’s parents were the inspiration for New Jersey’s hazing law.

“Unfortunately, these fraternities get out of hand, and really need to have something in place that's going to be able to deter them from doing it anymore, because they get into a situation where they drink too much and not being monitored. That’s what happened to young Timothy Piazza," Bateman told New Jersey 101.5.

The circumstances of the Rutgers incident had not not disclosed by the prosecutor's office when Bateman spoke with New Jersey 101.5 early Saturday afternoon.  But if it’s found that more than drinking alcohol was part of what happened Kipman would favor taking another look at the hazing law. The former legislator said that many colleges are not complying with the current law.

“A lot of the colleges have not complied with the rules and regulations of legislation,” Bateman said. “I think they have to look back at it and make certain that it's being complied with, and if not, I think they have to revisit it for possible stiffer penalties.”

Bateman told the website HazingInfo.org that many schools are not reporting their incidents despite it being easy to incorporate reporting into a school's infrastrcuture. They should face a penalty for non compllance, according to the former senator.

The website's research shows that between 2018 and Feb. 2025 73 incidents had been reported from 16 colleges. Rutgers had the most with 28 reported incidents.

HazingInfo.org is a partnership between the University of Maine, the University of Washington Information School, and StopHazing.org to keep parents and families informed about hazing incidents. Founders Jolayne Houtz and Hector Martinez lost their son, Sam, to hazing in 2019.