On Thursday, nine members of the Louisiana State University chapter of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity were arrested after being accused of brutally hazing pledges.
According to Buzzfeed News, the arrest reports says a pledge was forced “strip down to his underwear and climb into an ice machine that was half filled with water and half still frozen ice” and stay there for 30 to 45 minutes. The pledge told police he “did not attempt to get out of the ice machine because he felt he would have been beaten up if he did.”
After being allowed to get out of the ice machine, “the pledge said he was made to lie on a basketball court covered in broken glass, where he and another pledge were “sprayed with a hose, had milk crates thrown at them, and were urinated on.”
Those arrested include Charles Eugene Brakenridge, 23; Blake Andrew Chalin, 20; Cade Rain Duckworth, 23; Gaston Thomas Eymard, 23; Shakti P. Gilotra, 22; Joseph Dylan Harkrider, 19; Malcolm Richard McNiece, 23; Alexander Joseph Rozas, 23; and Garrett Joseph Sanders, 21. Duckworth and McNiece are the only two not currently enrolled at LSU.
An affidavit provided to Buzzfeed also says the men are accused of “kicking pledges in the chest with steel toe boots, beating them with a metal pipe, and making them stand in painful positions for hours on end.” One pledge reports being doused with gasoline.
Duckworth faces the most serious charges, including three felony charges of false imprisonment and three charges of criminal hazing. According to the Baton Rouge Advocate, Duckworth’s arrest report says pledges were allegedly forced to “hold a crate filled with ice and cayenne pepper above their heads while standing in a cold shower and looking up, which caused the ice to melt and the pepper to drip into their eyes.”
LSU’s chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon was closed in January due to the hazing allegations.