The family of Timothy Piazza, the 19-year-old who died while pledging a Penn State University fraternity in February, spoke out about his death Monday after charges were brought against 18 of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity brothers. Piazza died after an alleged hazing ritual involving an event called “the gauntlet,” in which pledges consume excessive amounts of alcohol.

“What happened throughout that night was just careless disregard for human life,” Timothy’s father, Jim Piazza, told NBC's "Today" Monday. “They basically treated our son as roadkill and a ragdoll.”

Disturbing testimony Friday revealed the fraternity brothers failed to call an ambulance though Piazza was clearly in distress after falling down a flight of stairs at about 11 p.m. during a night of pledging. Instead, some of the brothers slapped him in an attempt to rouse him and eventually left him on a couch. Surveillance video captured some of the fraternity members carrying Piazza’s body, smacking him in the face and even pouring liquid on him. Throughout the night, Piazza went in and out of consciousness.

The brothers did not call 911 until the next morning, almost 12 hours later.

“This wasn’t boys being boys,” his father told CBS News. “This was the murder of our son. They tortured him for 12 hours. They let him suffer for 12 hours. He died a slow and painful death at the hands of these ‘men of principle,’ as they call it.”

Piazza’s death was ultimately ruled accidental, but 18 members of the fraternity were charged in connection with his death. Eight of them faced felony charges that could carry up to 20 years in prison.

“To hit him and slap him and brutalize him, they should not have been trying to get a response,” his brother, Mike Piazza, told CBS News. “They should have been trying to get him help.”

“How do you pour liquid on someone, slap them in the face and hit them after you just watched them fall and they were unconscious?” said Timothy’s girlfriend, Kaitlyn Tempalsky.

Piazza’s family said they asked the hospital doctor if Timothy would have lived if he had been brought in earlier. The doctor said "yes."

“They said he had a non-recoverable brain injury,” his father said. “So we knew at that point he wasn’t gonna make it. We were hoping that there would be something different, an outcome. They let us go in and see him. You know, we talked to him a little bit. We held his hand.”

The fraternity’s national organization disbanded the chapter, while Penn State banned the fraternity from the university permanently. Penn State also canceled all social activities that included alcohol for the remainder of the semester. The Piazza family expressed dismay at the fact that Penn State did not send an official to Timothy’s wake or funeral.

"To know that he was lying at the bottom of the basement steps for any length of time all by himself," said his mother, Evelyn Piazza. "It all is terrible."

Referring to the charges against the 18 fraternity brothers, Timothy’s father said he would be “good with 20 years.”

“They killed him,” he said. “They fed him lethal doses of alcohol and they killed him.”

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