A disturbing video from an Iowa fraternity house is spreading across the internet. Bodycam footage from police officers shows the shocking incident at the University of Iowa, with the fraternity now suspended.
The bodycam footage from a police officer entering a fraternity at the University of Iowa was published on Youtube Tuesday. It has received millions of views across social media platforms.
Footage shows police and firefighters responding to a fire alarm at the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in November 2004, according to a report in the Iowa City Press-Citizen.
As officers entered the basement of the house, 56 shirtless and blindfolded young men were found behind a door in a dark room, covered in various substances which looked like food.
The University of Iowa has emphasized that hazing—where new fraternity members undergo humiliating and sometimes dangerous initiations—is strictly forbidden both on campus and under Iowa law.
Disturbing video from an Iowa fraternity
In the video, one police officer is heard saying, “Does anyone want to be forthcoming about what’s going on? Anyone? Because you gotta see it from my perspective, what the f**k did I just walk into?”
“Looks like we have quite a bit of hazing,” one officer says to a baseball cap-wearing man, who appeared not to be a part of the “ritual.”
“I’ve already given multiple commands to clear the room and get out of here, but no one’s moving.”
The officer asked about who was in charge and for the “house dad.” One person in a white hoodie, later identified as 21-year-old Joseph Gaya, is seen drinking a beer in the basement doorway. He said the fraternity held a “celebration of life.”
At one point, he wiped a red substance off a pledge’s neck while an officer was checking if anyone was hurt, and even asked the officer if he wanted to “taste it.”
“This stops here, guys,” one officer said, adding, “This is the police department. This stops here. Who is in charge?”
“Hazing event”
He then told the blindfolded men, “Let’s start cleaning this up. Everyone take off your blindfolds.”
The officer continued, “I’ve already given several commands to clear the room, but no one is moving. They’re clearly taking this very seriously.”
A man claiming to be the fraternity’s president told an officer on camera that the pledges were taking part in the “lead up to initiation.”
However, the police weren’t having it.
“We responded to a fire alarm, we were trying to get people to evacuate because of the fire alarm, but from my understanding, you guys refused,” an officer could be heard saying.
“Then, on top of that, we find this hazing event, we want to speak to somebody. Nobody knows anything, nobody knows anyone. Nobody knows what’s going on. This is going in a report. The University of Iowa is going to see this.”
Suspended the fraternity
Gaya was arrested the next day and charged with interference with official acts, according to court records obtained by the NY Post.
A University of Iowa spokesperson previously told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that Gaya was not a student at the university at the time of the incident.
Records show the charges against Gaya were dropped after the state moved to dismiss the case. The University of Iowa investigated the incident and ultimately suspended the fraternity for four years, through 2029, according to the report.
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