Authorities have arrested two more suspects in the recent fraternity hazing death of a 20-year-old student at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Kyle Thurman was captured on Monday at a home in Port Allen, Louisiana, which is adjacent to Baton Rouge, local police said. Meanwhile, Isiah Smith, whose father reportedly owns a warehouse where Wilson was mortally injured while undergoing the pledging process to join Southern’s Omega Psi Phi fraternity, turned himself over to the custody of police on Tuesday.
Both Thurman, 25, and Smith, 28, face charges of felony criminal hazing in the 27 February death of Caleb Wilson, investigators said.
The arrest of Thurman occurred after he missed a deadline to surrender, Baton Rouge’s WAFB news station reported. He and Smith were identified as suspects in the Wilson case after Thursday night’s arrest of Caleb McCray, 23, on counts of criminal hazing and manslaughter.
McCray had initially been described as a graduate of Southern, a historically Black institution, after surrendering himself to police. But the school said on Monday that McCray, Thurman and Smith were all current students and would undergo disciplinary proceedings at Southern that could potentially culminate in their expulsions, according to WAFB.
Southern officials also reiterated that the Omega Psi Phi chapter at its campus had been ordered to “cease and desist”, and all fraternities as well as sororities there had been prohibited from accepting new members at least for the rest of the academic year.
An arrest warrant affidavit obtained by police in connection with McCray alleged that he and at least two other people wearing boxing gloves punched about nine fraternity pledges. After McCray punched Wilson four times in the chest, the latter “collapsed to the floor and became unresponsive”, the affidavit alleged.
“Wilson appeared to suffer a seizure and lose control of his bodily function,” the affidavit also alleged.
McCray’s attorney, Phillip Robinson, has issued a statement asking the public to withhold judgment until all evidence in the case is eventually heard.
At a news briefing on Friday, the Baton Rouge police department chief, TJ Morse, said his agency learned of Wilson’s death from medical staff at a local hospital where a group of young men had dropped him off. The group claimed Wilson had collapsed while playing basketball at a public park and then left the hospital before police arrived.
Police nonetheless later determined that Wilson – in his junior year at Southern – had actually been fatally hurt at a warehouse more than three miles away from the park, Morse said.
Morse said investigators identified suspects in Wilson’s death after interviewing more than a dozen people as well as executing multiple search warrants. He said police were treating Wilson’s death as a manslaughter rather than a murder because it was unintentional yet stemmed from criminal behavior – specifically, hazing.
Louisiana’s legislature criminalized hazing after the 2017 death of Max Gruever, another college student in Baton Rouge, which is the state’s capital. Gruever had been forced to ingest a deadly level of alcohol while pledging to join the Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Louisiana State University.
A hazing conviction can carry up to five years in prison under Louisiana law. A manslaughter conviction can result in up to 40 years in prison.
Wilson was studying mechanical engineering at the time of his death. He was also a trumpet player for Southern’s famed Human Jukebox marching band, which was on worldwide television when it performed at the NFL Super Bowl on 9 February in New Orleans.
